AMERICAN  SLAVERY  AS  IT  IS: 
Testimony  of  a  Thousand  Witnesses 


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■JHOD  'uo|)|30is   — 


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AMERICAN    SLAVERY 


AS   IT   is: 


OFPRIN^ 


JUL   9     1986 


j^.OG-:CALStg^ 

TESTIMONY 


A    THOtJSANB  WITNESSES. 


"  Behold  Uifi  witfced  abominations  iliat  they  do!" — Ezekiel,  viii.  0. 

"•The  ntjjiteous  consxdereth  the  cause  of  the  poor;  but  the  wicked  regardeth  not  to  know  it." — Prov.  29, 

'  True  humanity  consists  not  in  a  squeamish  ear,  but  in  listening  to  the  story  of  human  suffering  and  endea- 
voring to  relieve  it." — Charles  James  Fo.x. 


NEW     YORK 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  AMERICAN  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY, 

OFFICE,  No.  143  NASSAU  STREET. 

18  39. 


ADVERTISEMENT   TO  THE  READER. 

A  MAJOKiTY  of  the  facts  and  testimony  contained  in  this  work  rests  upon  the  authority  of. 
sLAVTjioLUERs,  whose  names  and  residences  are  given  to  the  public,  as  vouchers  for  the  truth  of 
their  statements.  That  they  should  utter  falsehoods,  for  the  sake  of  proclaiming  their 
own  infamy,  is  not  probable. 

Their  testimony  is  taken,  mainly,  from  recent  newspapers,  published  in  the  slave  states.  Most 
of  ihose  papers  will  be  deposited  at  the  office  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Societj'',  143  Nas- 
sau street,  New- York  City.  Those  who  think  the  atrocities,  which  they  describe,  incredible, 
are  invited  to  call  and  read  for  themselves.  We  regret  that  all  of  the  original  papers  are  not  in 
our  possession.  The  idea  of  preserving  them  on  file  for  the  inspection  of  the  incredulous,  and  tlie 
curious,  did  not  occur  to  us  until  after  the  preparation  of  the  work  was  in  a  state  of  forwardness  ^ 
iu  consequence  of  this,  some  of  the  papers  cannot  be  recovered.  Nearly  all  of  them,  however 
have  been  preserved.  In  all  cases  the  name  of  the  paper  is  given,  and,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, the  place  and  time,  (year,  month,  and  day)  of  publication.  Some  of  the  extracts,  however 
not  being  made  with  reference  to  this  work,  and  before  its  publication  was  contemplated,  are 
without  date  ;  but  this  class  of  extracts  is  exceedingly  small,  probably  not  a  thirtieth  of  the  whole 

The  statements,  not  derived  from  the  papers  and  other  periodicals,  letters,  books,  &c.,  pub- 
lished by  slaveholders,  have  been  furnished  by  individuals  who  have  resided  in  slave  states,  many 
of  whom  are  natives  of  those  states,  and  have  been  slaveholders.  The  names,  residences,  &c. 
of  the  witnesses  generally  are  given.  A  number  of  them,  however,  still  reside  in  slave  states  ; — ' 
to  publish  their  names  would  be,  in  njost  cases,  to  make  them  the  victims  of  popular  fury. 

New- York,  May  4,  1839. 


NOTE. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  while  tendering  their  grate, 
ful  acknowledgments,  in  the  name  of  American  Abolitionists,  and  in  behalf  of  the  slave,  to  those 
who  have  furnished  for  this  publication  the  result  of  their  residence  and  travel  in  the  slave  states  ol 
this  Union,  announce  their  determination  to  publish,  from  time  to  time,  as  they  may  have  the  ma- 
terials  and  the  funds,  tracts,  containing  well  authenticated  facts,  testimony,  persoifel  narratives, 
&c.  fully  setting  forth  the  condition  of  American  slaves.  In  order  that  they  maybe  furnished  with 
the  requisite  materials,  they  invite  all  who  have  hnd  personal  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  slaves 
in  any  of  the  states  of  this  Union,  to  forward  their  testimony  with  tlieir  names  and  residences.  To 
prevent  imposition,  it  is  indispensable  tliat  persons  forwarding  testimony,  who  are  not  personally 
known  to  any  of  the  Executive  Committee,  or  to  the  Secretaries  or  Editors  of  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  should  furnish  references  to  some  person  or  persons  of  respectability,  with  whom,  if 
necessary,  the  Committee  may  communicate  respecting  the  writer. 

Facts  and  testimony  respecting  the  condition  of  slaves,  in  all  respects,  are  desired  ;  their  food, 
(kinds,  quality,  and  quantity,)  clothing,  lodging,  dwellings,  hours  of  labor  and  rest,  kinds  of  labor, 
with  the  mode  of  exaction,  supervision,  &c. — the  number  and  time  of  meals  each  day,  treatment 
when  sick,  regulations  respecting  their  social  intercourse,  marriage  and  domestic  ties,  the  system 
of  torture  to  which  they  are  subjected,  witli  its  various  modes;  and  in  detail,  their  intellectual 
and  moral  condition.  Great  care  should  be  observed  in  the  statement  of  facts.  Well-weighed 
testimony  and  well-authenticated  facts .  with  a  responsible  name,  the  Committee  earnestly  desire 
and  call  for.  Thousands  of  persons  in  the  free  states  have  ample  knowledge  on  this  subject,  de- 
rived from  their  own  observation  in  the  midst  of  slavery.  Will  such  hold  their  peace?  That  which 
maketh  manifest  is  light;  he  who  keepeth  his  candle  under  a  bushel  at  such  a  time  and  in  sucii 
a  cause  as  this,  forges  fetters  for  himself,  as  well  as  for  the  slave.  Let  no  one  withhold  his  testi- 
mony because  others  have  already  testified  to  similar  facts.  The  value  of  testimony  is  by  no 
means  to  be  measured  by  the  novelty  of  the  horrors  which  it  describes.  Corroborative  testimony, 
— facts,  similar  to  those  established  by  the  testimony  of  others, — is  highly  valuable.  Who  tJiat 
can  give  it  and  has  a  heart  of  flesh,  will  refuse  to  the  slave  so  small  a  boon  ? 

Communications  may  be  addressed  to  Theodore  D.  Weld,  143  Nassau-street,  New  York. 
New  York,  May,  1839. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction. — ^7-10. 

Twenty-seven  hundred  thousand  free  bom  citizens  of 
t')e  U.  S.  in  slaveiy,  7  ;  Tender  mercies  of  slaveliolders,  8 : 
Abominations  of  slavery,  9:  Character  of  the  testimo- 
ny, 9-10. 

Personal  Narratives — Part  I.  pp.  10-27. 

Narrative  of  Nehemiah  Cavlkins,  10-2 ;  North 
Carolina  slavery,  11  ;  Methodist  preaching  slavedriver, 
Galloway,  12 :  Women  at  child-birth,  12  :  Slaves 
at  labor,  13 :  Clothing  of  slaves,  13 ;  Allowance  of 
provisions,  13  ;  Slave-fetters,  1.3  ;  Cruelties  to  slaves,  13, 
14,  15,  Burying  a  slave  alive,  15  ;  Licentiousness  of  Slave- 
holders, 15,  16 ;  Rev.  Thomas  P.  Hunt,  with  his  "  hands 
tied,"  16  ;  Preachers  cringe  to  slavery,  15  ;  Nakedness  of 
slaves,  16  ;  Slave-huts,  16  ;  Means  of  subsisteme  for 
slaves,  16,  17  ;  Slaves'  prayer,  17. 

Narrrative  of  Rev.  Horace  Moslton,  17  ;  Labor 
of  the  slaves,  18 ;  Tasks,  18  ;  Whipping  posts,  18  ;  Food, 
1<? :  Houses,  19  ;  Clothing,  19  ;  Punishments,  19,  20  ; 
Scones  of  horror,  20  ;  Constables,  savage  and  brutal,  20 ; 
Patrols,  20,  Cruelties  at  night,  20,21;  Paddlr.-torturing, 
20  ;  Cat-hauling^  21  ;  Branding  with  hot  iron,  21 :  Murder 
with  impunity,  21 ;     Iron  collars,  yokes,  clogs,  and  bells,  21. 

Narrative  of  Sarah  M.  Grimke,  22 ;  Barbarous  Treat- 
ment of  slaves,  22  ;  Converted  slave,  22  ;  Professor  of  reli- 
gion, near  death,  tortured  his  slave  for  visiting  his  com- 
panion, 33 ;  Counterpart  of  James  VVi]liams'  description  of 
Larrimore's  wife,  23  ;  Head  of  runaway  slave  on  a  pole, 
23  ;  Governor  of  North  Carolina  left  his  sick  slave  to  per- 
ish, 23 ;  Cruelty  to  Women  slaves,  34  ;  Christian  slave  a 
martyr  for  Jesus,  24. 

Testimony  of  Rev.  John  Graham,  25  ;  Twenty-seveu 
slaves  whipped,  26. 

Testimony  of  William  Poe,  26 ;  Harris  whipped  a 
girl  to  death,  26 ;  Captain  of  the  U.  S.  Navy  murdered 
his  boy,  was  tried  and  acquitted,  26  ;  Overseer  burut  a 
slave,  26  ;  Cruelties  to  slaves,  26. 

Privations  of  the  slaves,  pp.  27 — 44- 

FOOD,  28-31  ;  Suflering  from  hunger,  28  ;  Rations  in 
the  U.  S.  Army,  &c  ,  32  ;  Prison  rations,  33-34  ;  Testimo- 
ny, 34,  fiS.  LABOR,  35  ;  Slaves  arc  overworked,  35;  Wit- 
nesses, 35,  36  ;  Henry  Clay,  37  ;  Child-bearing  preveuted, 
37;  Dr.  Chauuing,  38  ;  Sacrifice  of  a  set  of  hands  cv»y 
seven  years,  3S  ;  Testimony,  39  ;  Laws  of  Georgia,  Louis- 
iana, Maryland,  South  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  39. 
CLOTHING,  40  ;  Witnesses,  40,  41  ;  Advertisements, 
41;  Testimony,  41;  Field-hands,  41;  Nudity  of  slaves, 
42;  Jahn  Randolph's  legacy  to  Essex  and  Hetty,  42. 
DWELLINGS,  42  ;  Witnesses,  43 ;  Slaves  are  wretchedly 
sheltered  and  lodged,  43.  TREATMENT  OF  THE 
SICK,  44. 

Perso>'al  Narratives,  Part  II.  pp  45-57. 

Testimony  of  the  Rev.  Wiilliam  T.  Allan.  45; 
Woman  delivered  of  a  de.-id  child,  being  whipped,  46  ; 
Slaves  shot  by  Hilton,  46  ;  Cnielties  to  slaves,  46  ;  Whip- 
puig  post,  46  ;  Assaults,  and  maimings,  46,  47 ;  Mur- 
ders, 47;  Puryear,  "  the  Devil,"  47;  Overseers  always 
armed,  44  ;  Licentiousness  of  Overseers,  47  ;  "  Bend  your 
backs,"  47  ;  Mrs.  H.,  a  Presbyterian,  desirous  to  cut  Arthur 
Tappau's  throat,  47 ;  Clothing,  Huts,  and  Herding  of 
slaves,  47 ;  Iron  yokes  with  prongs,  47 ;  Marriage  un- 
known among  slaves,  46 ;  Presbyterian  minister  at  Huats- 
ville,  47 ;  Concubinage  in  Preacher's  house,  47  ;  Slavery, 
the  great  wrong,  47. 

NARR.vnvE  or  Willia.-h  Lfftwich,  48, 49  ;  Slave's  life, 
48;,  49. 


Testimony  of  Lemuel  Sapington,  49 ;  Naljedaess  of 
slaves,  49  ;  Traffic  in  slaves,  49. 

Testimony  of  Mrs.  Lowry,  50 ;  Long,  a  professor  of 
religion  killed  three  men,  50  ;  Salt  water  applied  to 
wounds  to  keep  them  from  putrefaction,  50. 

Testimony  of  Willi.4.m  C.  Gildersleeve,  50  ;  Acts  of 
cruelty,   50. 

Testimony  of  Hiram  White,  51 ;  Woman  with  a  child 
chained  to  her  neck,  51  ;  Amalgamation,  and  mulatto 
children,  51. 

Testimony  of  John  M.  Nelson,  51 ;  Rev.  Conrad 
Speece  influenced  Alexander  Nelson  when  dying  not  to 
emancipate  his  slaves,  5S  ;  George  Bourne  opposed  slavery  in 
1810,  52. 

Testimony  of  Angelina  Grimke  Weld,  52  ;  House- 
servants,  52  ;  Slave-driving  female  professors  of  religion  at 
Charleston,  S.  C,  53  ;  Whipping  women  and  prayer  in  the 
same  room,  53 ;  Tread-mills,  53  ;  Slavcholding  religion, 
54  ;  Slave-driving  mistress  prayed  for  the  divine  blessing 
upon  her  whipping  of  an  aged  woman,  54  ;  Girl  killed  with 
impunity,  54  ;  Jewish  law,  54  ;  Barbarities,  54  ;  Jledical 
attendance  upon  slaves,  55  ;  Young  man  beaten  to  epilepsy 
and  insanity,  55  ;  Mistresses  flog  their  slaves,  55  ;  Blood- 
bought  luxuries,  55  ;  Borrowing  of  slaves,  55  ;  Meals  of 
slaves,  55 ;  All  comfort  of  slaves  disregarded,  56  ;  Severance 
of  companion  lovers,  56  ;  Separation  of  parents  and  children, 
56  ;  Slave  espionage,  57  ;  SutTerings  of  slaves,  57  ;  llorrori 
of  slavery  indescribable,  50. 

Testimony  of  Cruelty  inflicted  upon  slaves,  -57  ; 
Colonization  Society,  60  ;  Emancipation  Society  of  North 
Carolina,  60  ;  Kentucky,  61. 

PUNISHMENTS,  62-72 ;  Floggings,  62;  Witnesses  and 
Testimony,  62,  63. 

Slave  Driving,  69  ;  Droves  of  slaves,  70. 

Cruelty  to  Slave.?,  70  ;  Slaves  like  Stock  without  a 
shelter,  71  ;  "  SLx  pound  paddle,"  71. 

Tortures  of  slaves.  Iron  collars,  chains,  fetters,  and 
hand-cuffs,  72-76  :  Advertisements  for  fugitive  slaves,  73 : 
Testimony,  74,  75 :  Iron  head-frame,  76  :  Chain  coffles, 
76  ;  Droves  of '  human  cattle,'  76:  Washington,  the  Na- 
tional s'ave  market,  76:  Testimony  of  James  K.  Pauld- 
ing, Secretary  of  the  Navy  ;  Literary  fraud  and  pretaideii 
prophecy  by  Mr.  Paulding,  77  :  Brandings,  Maimings,  and 
Gun-shot  wounds,  77 :  Witnesses  and  Testimony,  77-82 
Mr.  Sevier,  senator  of  the  U.  S.  79:  Judge  Hitchcock,  ot 
Mobile,  79  :  Commendable  fidelity  to  truth  in  tlie  advertisa 
ments  of  slaveholders,  82  :  Thomas  Aylethorpe  cut  off  a 
slave's  ear,  and  sent  it  to  Lewis  Tappan,  93 :  Advertise 
mants  for  runaway  slaves  witli  their  teeth  muti- 
lated, 83,  84  ;  Excessive  cruelty  to  slaves,  85 :  Slaveij 
burned  alive,  86 :  Mr.  Turner,  a  slave-butcher,  87 
Slaves  roasted  and  flogged,  87:  Cruelties  common,  83 
Fugitive  slaves,  88  :  Slaves  forced  to  eat  tobacco  worms, 
88:  Baptist  Christians  escaping  from  slavery,  83;  Chrits- 
tian  whipped  for  praying,  83 :  James  K.  Paulding's  tes5; 
mony,  8D  ;  Slave  driven  to  death,  89 ;  Coroner's  inquest  oi 
Harney's  murdered  female  slave,  80:  Man-stcalin;^ 
couraged  by  law,  90  :  Trial  for  a  murdered  slave,  90  :  Fe 
male  slave  whipped  to  death,  and  during  the  torture  deliv- 
ered of  a  dead  infant.  90  :  Slaves  murdered,  90,  91,  92 
Slave  driven  to  death,  92 :  Slaves  killed  with  impunity 
93  :  George,  a  slave,  chopped  piece-meal,  and  burnt  bj 
Lilburn  Lewis,  92  ;  Retributive- ju.stiee  in  the  awful  deatl 
of  Lilburu  Lewis,  94  :  Trial  of  Ishain  Lewis,  a  slave  mm 
derer.  91. 


VI 


Contents. 


Personal   Narratives-— Part  hi.     Paoe  94-109. 

Narrative  of  Rev.  Francis  Hawley,  94  ;  Plantations, 
94  ;  Overseers,  93  ;  No  appeal  from  Overseers  to  Masters, 
95. 
Clothing,  95  ;  Nudity  of  slaves,  95. 
Work,  95  ;  Cottoii-picking,  96  ;  Mothers  of  slaves,  96  ; 
Presbyterian  minister  killed  his  slave,  96  ;  Methodist  co- 
lored preacher  hiin";,  90  ;  Licentiousness,  97  ;  Slave-traffic, 
97  ;  Night  in  a  Slaveholder's  house,  97  ;  Twelve  slaves 
murdered,  97 ;  Slave  driving  Baptist  preachers,  97  ;  Hunt- 
iiiR  of  runaways  slaves,  97 ;  Amalgamation,  97. 

Testimony  of  Reuben  C.  Macy,  and  Richard  Macy,  98. 
Whipping  of  slaves,  98,  99.  Testimony  of  Eleazer  Powel, 
99  ;  Overseer  of  Hinds  Stuart,  shot  a  slave  for  opposing  the 
torture  of  his  female  companion,  100. 

TESTiiMONY  OF  Rev.  William  Scalks,  100.  Thfce  slaves 
murdered  with  impunity,  100  ;  Separation  of  lovers,  par- 
ents, and  children,  101. 

Testimony  of  Jos.  Idk,  101.  Mrs.  T.  a  Presbyterian  kind 
woman- killer,  101;  Female  slave  whipped  to  death,  101; 
Food,  101  ;  Nakedness  of  slaves,  101  ;  Old  man  flogged 
after  praying  for  his  tyrant,  101  ;  Slave-huts  not  as  comfort- 
able as  pig- sties,  101. 

Testimony  of  Rev.  Phineas  Smith,  101.  Texas,  102  ; 
Suit  for  the  value  of  slave  '  property,'  102;  Anson  Jones, 
Ambassador  from  Texas,  102;  No  trial  or  punishment  for 
the  murder  of  slaves,  102  ;  Slave-Iiunthig  in  Texas,  102; 
Suffering  drives  the  slaves  to  despair  and  suicide,  102. 
Testimony  OF  Phil'n  Bliss,  102.  Ignorance  of  northern 
citizens  respecting  slavery,  102,Betting  upon  crops,  103 ;  E.x- 
tcnt  and  cruelty  ofthe  punishment  of  slaves,  103;  Slavehold- 
ers excuse  their  cruelties  by  the  example  of  Preachers, 
and  professorsof  religion,  and  Northern  citizens,  104  ;  Novel 
torture,  eulogized  by  a  professor  of  religion,  104 ;  Whips  as 
common  as  the  plough,  104  ;  I^adies  use  cowliides,  with 
shovel  and  tonjs,  104. 

Testimony  of  Rev.  Wm.  A.  Chapin,  105.  Slave-labor, 
105;  Starvation  of  slaves,  105  ;  Slaves  lacerated,  without 
clothing,  and  vi'ithout  food,  105. 

Testimony  of  T.  M.  Macy,  105.  Cotton  plantations  on  St. 
Simon's  Island,  105  ;  Cultivntion  of  rice,  106  ;  No  time  for 
relaxation,  106;  Sabbath  a  nominal  rest,  100;  Clothing, 
100;  Flogging,  106. 

Testimony  of  F.  C.  Macy,  106.  Slave  cabins,  106  ;  Food, 
106 ;  Whipping  every  day,  100  ;  Treatment  of  slaves  as 
brutes,  106  ;  Slave-boys  fight  for  slaveliolder's  amUSemenli 
107  ;  Amalgamation  commo'i,  107. 

Testimony  of  a  Clergyman,  107.  Natchez,  107  ;  '  Lie 
down,'  for  whipping,  107  ;  Slave-hunting,  108  ;  '  Ball  and 
chain' men,  108;  Whipping  at  the  same  time,  on  three 
plantations,  108  ;  Hours  of  Labor,  108;  Christians  slave- 
lionting,  108  ;  Many  runaway  slaves  annually  shot,  108 ; 
Slaves  in  the  stocks,  108  ;  Slave-branding,  108. 

OoNDiTioN  of  Slaves,  108.  Slavery  is  unmixed  cruelty, 
108;  Fear  the  only  motive  of  slaves,  109;  Pain  is  the 
lueans,  not  the  end  of  slave-driving,  109  ;  Characters  of 
Slave  drivers  and  Overseers,  brutal,  sensual,  and  violent, 
109  ;  Ownership  of  human  beings  utterly  destroys  their 
comfort,  109. 

OBJECTIONS  CONSIDERED  :— Page  I'JO— 210. 

I.  Such  cruelties  are  incredible,  110.  Slaves  deemed  to 
'>e  working  animals,  or  merchandize  ;  and  called  '  Stock,' 
'  Increase,'  '  Breeders,'  '  Drivers,'  '  Propotty,'  '  Human 
cattle,'  110  ;  Testimony  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  110  ;  Slaves 
worse  treated  than  quadrupeds.  111,  112  ;  Contrast  between 
the  usage  of  slaves  and  animals,  112  ;  Testimony,  112! 
Northern  incredulity  discreditable  to  consistency,  112; 
Religious  persecutions,  113  ;  Recent  '  Lynch ings,'  and  Riots, 
in  the  United  States,  113  ;  Many  outrageous  Fekinies  perpe- 
trated with  impunity,  113  ;  Large  faith  of  the  objectors  who 
'  can't  believe,'  114  ;  'Doe  faces,'  and'  Dough  faces,'  114  ; 
Slave-drivers  acknowledge  their  own  enormities,  111; 
Slave  plantations   in  Alabama.  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi, 

second  only  to  hell,'  1 14  ;  Legislature  of  North  Carolina, 


115;  Incredulity  discreditable  to  intelligence,  115;  Abus^,  of 
power  in  the  state,  and  chiu-ches.  115 ;  Legal  restraints,  116 ; 
American  slaveholders  possess  absolute  power,  116;  Slaves 
deprived  of  the  safeguards  of  law,116;  Mutual  aversion  be- 
tween the  oppressor  and  the  slave,  116  ;  Cruelty  the  product 
of  arbitrary  power,  117  ;  Testimony  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
117  ;  Judge  Tucker,  117 ;  Presbyterian  Synod  of  South 
Carolina,  and  Georgia,  117  ;  General  William  H.  Harrison, 
117;  President  Edwards,  118;  Montesquieu,  118;  Wilber- 
force,  118  ;  Whitbread,  118  ;  Characters,  118, 121. 

Objection  II. — "  Slaveholders  protest  that  they  treat  their 
slaves  well.''  121  Not  testimony  but  opinion,  122;  'Good 
treatment'  of  slaves,'  123  ;  Novel  form  of  cruelty,  125  . 

Objection  III — "  Slaveholders  are  proverbial  for  their 
kindness,  and  generosity,  125 ;  Hospitality  and  benevolence 
contrasted,  125,120;  Slaveholders  in  Congress,  respecting 
Texas  and  Hayti,  126  ;  '  Fictitious  kindness  and  hospitality,' 
128. 

Objection  IV. — "  Northern  visitors  at  the  south  testify 
that  tlie  slaves  are  not  cruelly  treated,"  128.  Testimony, 
128,129;  '  Gubner  poisened,' 129  ;  Fiela-haiids,  130;  Par- 
lor slaves,  130  ;  Chief  Justice  Durell,  131. 

Objection  V.—"  It  is  for  the  interest  of  the  masters  to 
treat  their  slaves  well,"  132 ;  Testunony,  133.  Rev.  X.  N 
Maffitt,  134  ;  Masters  interest  to  treat  cruelly  the  great  body 
ofthe  slaves,  134,138  ;  Various  classes  of  slaves,  135,  130  ; 
Hired  slaves,  130  ;  Advertisements,  130, 137. 

Objection  VI: — "  Slaves  multiply  ;  a  proof  tliat  they  are 
not  inhumanly  treated,  and  are  in  a  comfortable  condition, 
139.  Testimony,  139;  Martin  VanBuren,  139;  Foreign 
slave  trade,  139  ;  '  Beware  of  Kidnappers,'  140  ;  '  Citizens 
sold  as  slaves,'  141 ;  Kidnapping  at  New  Orleans,  141 ;  Slave 
breeders,  142. 

Objection  VII. — "  Public  opinion  is  a  protection  to  the 
slave,  143."  Decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Noitli  and 
South  Carolina,  143;  '  Protection  of  slaves,'  143;  Mischiev- 
ous effects  of  '  public  opinion'  concerning  slavery,  114  ; 
Laws  of  different  states,  144  ;  Heart  of  slaveholders,  145  ; 
Reasons  for  enacthig  the  laws  concerning  cruelties  to 
slaves,  147 ;  '  Moderate  correction,'  148 ;  Hypocrisy  and 
malignity  of  slave  laws,  148  ;  Testimony  of  slaves  excluded, 
149 ;  Capital  crimes  for  slaves,  149  ;  '  Slaveholding  brutidi- 
ty,'  worse  tha-i  that  of  Caligula,  149 ;  Public  opinion  destroys 
fundamental  rights,  150 ;  Character  of  slaveholder.s'  adver- 
tisements, l.')2  ;  Public  opinion  is  diabolical,  152,  154  ; 
Brutal  indecency,  154  ;  Murder  of  slaves  by  law,  155, 156 ; 
Judge  Lawless,  157;  Slave-hunting,  159,  160;  Healih  of 
slaves,  161  ;  Acclimation  of  slaves,  162  ;  Liberty  of  Slaves 
162  ;  Kidnapping  of  free  citizens,  162  ;  Law  of  Louisiana, 
163 ;  Friends',  memorial,  164  ;  Domestic  slavery,  164  ;  Ad- 
vertisements, 164, 167 ;  Childhood,old  age,  167;  Inhiimani 
ty,  169;  Butchering  dead  slaves,  169;  South  Carolina 
Medical  college,  169  ;  Charleston  Medical  Intirmaiy,  172  ; 
Advertisements,  172,  173  ;  Slave  murders,  173  ;  John  Ran- 
dolph, 173 ;  Charleston  slave  auctions,  174  ;  '  Never  lose  a 
day's  work,'  174 ;  Stocks,  175  ;  Slave-breeding,  175  ;  Lynch 
law,  175 ;  Slaves  murdered,176  ;  Slavery  among  Christians, 
176,  180  ;  Licentiousness  encouraged  by  preachers,  180  ; 
'Fine  old  preacher  who  dealt  in  slaves,'  180 :  Cruelty  to 
slaves  by  professors  of  religion,  181  ;  Slave-breeding,  182; 
Daniel  O'Connel,  and  Andrew  Stevenson,  182  ;  Virginia  a 
negro  raishig  menagerie,  182  •  Legislature  of  Virginia,  132; 
Colonization  Society,183 ;  Inter-state  slave  traffic,  1S4  ;  Bat- 
tles in  Congress,  184;  Duelling,  185;  Cock-fighting,  186; 
Horse-racing,  186 ;  Ignorance  of  slaveholders,  187;  'Slave- 
holding  civilization,  and  morahty,'  188 ;  Arkansas,  188 ; 
Slave  driving  ruffians,  189,  190  ;  Missouri,  191  :  Alabama, 
192  ;  Butcheriesin  Mississippi,  194  ;  Louisiana,  198;  Ten- 
nessee, 200  ;  Fatal  Affray  in  Colum'iia,  201 ;  Presentment 
ofthe  Grand  Jury  of  Shelby  County,  202 ;  Testimony  of 
Bishop  Smith  of  Kentucky,  204,  206. 

Atlantic  Slaveholding  Region,  206.  Georgia,  206; 
North  Carolina,  209 ;  Trading  with  Negroes,  209  ;  Conclu- 
sion, 210. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Reader,  you  are  empannelled  as  a  juror  to  try 
a  plain  case  and  bring  in  an  honest  verdict. 
The  question  at  issue  is  not  one  of  law,  but  of 
fact — "  What  is  ,  the  actual  condition  of  the 
slaves  in  the  United  States  ?"  A  plainer  case 
never  went  to  a  jury.  Look  at  it.  Twenty- 
seven  HUNDRED  THOUSAND  PERSONS  in  this  Coun- 
try, men,  women,  and  children,  are  in  slavery. 
Is  slavery,  as  a  condition  for  human  beings, 
good,  bad,  or  indifferent?  We  submit  the 
question  without  argument.  You  have  common 
sense,  and  conscieace,  and  a  human  heart ; — pro- 
nounce upon  it.  You  have  a  wife,  or  a  husband, 
a  child,  a  father,  a  mother,  a  brother  or  a  sister — 
make  the  case  your  own,  make  it  theirf,  and 
bring  in  your  verdict.  The  case  of  Human 
Rights  against  Slavery  has  been  adjudicated  in 
the  court  of  conscience  times  innumerable.  The 
same  verdict  has  always  been  rendered — "  Guil- 
ty;" the  same  sentence  has  always  been  pro- 
nounced, "  Let  it  be  accursed  ;"  and  human  na- 
ture, with  her  million  echoes,  has  rung  it  round 
the  world  in  every  language  under  heaven,  "  Let 
it  be  accursed.  Let  it  be  accursed."  His  heart  is 
false  to  human  nature,  who  will  not  say  "Amen." 
There  is  not  a  man  on  earth  who  does  not  be- 
lieve that  slavery  is  a  curse.  Human  beings 
may  be  inconsistent,  but  human  nature  is  true 
to  herself.  She  has  uttered  her  testimony 
against  slavery  with  a  shriek  ever  since  the  mon- 
ster was  begotten  ;  and  till  it  perishes  amidst  the 
execrations  of  the  universe,  she  will  traverse 
the  world  on  its  track,  dealing  her  bolts  upon  its 
head,  and  dashing  against  it  her  condemning 
brand.  We  repeat  it,  every  man  knows  that 
slavery  is  a  curse.  Whoever  denies  this,  his  lips 
libel  his  heart.  Try  him ;  clank  the  chains  in 
his  ears,  and  tell  him  they  are  for  kim.  Give 
him  an  hour  to  prepare  his  wife  and  children  for 
a  life  of  slavery.  Bid  him  make  haste  and  get 
ready  their  necks  for  the  yoke,  and  their  wrists 
for  the  coffle  chains,  then  look  at  his  pale  hps  and 
trembling  knees,  and  you  have  nature^s  testimony 
against  slavery. 


Two  millions  seven  hundred  thousand  persons 
in  these  States  are  in  this  condition.  They  were 
made  slaves  and  are  held  such  by  force,  and  by 
being  put  in  fear,  and  this  for  no  crime  !  Reader, 
what  have  you  to  say  of  such  treatment  ?  Is  it 
right,  just,  benevolent  ?  Suppose  I  should  seize 
you,  rob  you  of  your  liberty,  drive  you  into  the 
field,  and  make  you  work  without  pay  as  long  as 
you  live,  would  that  be  justice  and  kindness,  or 
monstrous  injustice  and  cruelty  ?  Now,  every 
body  knows  that  the  slaveholders  do  these  things 
to  the  slaves  every  day,  and  yet  it  is  stoutly  af- 
firmed that  they  treat  them  well  and  kindly,  and 
that  their  tender  regard  for  their  slaves  restrains 
tlie  masters  from  inflicting  cruelties  upon  them. 
We  shall  go  into  no  metaphysics  to  show  the 
absurdity  of  this  pretence.  The  man  who  rohs 
you  every  day,  is,  forsooth,  quite  too  tender- 
hearted ever  to  cufF  or  kick  you !  True,  he  can 
snatch  your  money,  but  he  docs  it  gently  lest  he 
should  hurt  you.  He  can  empty  your  pockets 
without  qualms,  but  if  your  stomach  is  empty,  it 
cuts  him  to  the  quick.  He  can  make  you  work 
a  life  time  without  pay,  but  loves  you  too  well 
to  let  you  go  hungry.  He  fleeces  you  of  your 
rights  with  a  relish,  but  is  shocked  if  you  work 
bareheaded  in  summer,  or  in  winter  without 
warm  stockings.  He  can  make  you  go  without 
your  liberty,  but  never  without  a  shirt.  He  san 
crush,  in  you,  all  hope  of  bettering  your  condition, 
by  vowing  that  you  shall  die  his  slave,  but  though 
he  can  coolly  torture  your  feeUngs,  he  is  too  com- 
passionate to  lacerate  your  back — he  can  break 
your  heart,  but  he  is  very  tender  of  your  skin. 
He  can  strip  you  of  all  protection  and  thus  ex- 
pose you  to  all  outrages,  but  if  you  arc  exposed 
to  the  weather,  half  clad  and  half  sheltered,  how 
yearn  his  tender  bowels  !  Wliat !  slaveholders 
talk  of  treating  men  well,  and  yet  not  only  rob 
them  of  all  they  get,  and  as  fast  as  they  get  if, 
but  rob  them  of  themselves,  also  ;  their  very  hands 
and  feet,  all  their  muscles,  and  limbs,  and  senses, 
their  bodies  and  minds,  their  time  and  liberty  and 
earnings,   their  free  speech  and  rights  of  con- 


8 


Introduction. 


science,  their  right  to  acquire  knowledge,  and 
propert}',  and  reputation ; — and  yet  they,  who 
plunder  them  of  all  these,  would  fain  make  us 
bcheve  that  their  soft  hearts  ooze  out  so  lovingly 
toward  their  slaves  that  they  always  keep  them 
well  lioused  and  well  clad,  never  pusli  them  too 
liard  m  the  field,  never  make  their  dear  backs 
smart,  nor  let  their  dear  stomachs  get  empty. 

But  there  is  no  end  to  these  absurdities. 
Are  slaveholders  dunces,  or  do  they  take  all 
tlie  rest  of  the  world  to  be,  that  they  think 
to  bandage  our  eyes  with  such  thin  gauzes? 
Protesting  their  kind  regard  for  those  whom 
they  hourly  plunder  of  all  they  have  and  all 
they  get  I  What !  when  they  have  seized  their 
victims,  and  annihilated  all  their  rights,  still 
claim  to  be  tlic  special  guardians  of  their  happi- 
ness !  Plunderers  of  their  libcrt}^,  yet  the  careful 
suppliers  of  their  wants  ?  Robbers  of  their  earn- 
ings, yet  watchful  sentinels  round  their  interests, 
and  kind  providers  of  their  comforts  ?  Filching  all 
their  time,  yet  granting  generous  donations  for  rest 
and  sleep  ?  Stealing  the  use  of  their  muscles,  3'et 
thoughtful  of  their  ease  ?  Putting  tliem  under  rfriu- 
ers,  yet  careful  that  they  arc  not  hard-pushed  ? 
Too  humane  forsooth  to  stint  the  stomachs  of 
their  slaves,  yet  force  their  minds  to  starve,  and 
brandish  over  them  pains  and  penalties,  if  they 
dare  to  reach  forth  for  the  smallest  crumb  of 
knowledge,  even  a  letter  of  the  alphabet ! 

It  is  no  marvel  that  slaveholders  arc  always 
talking  of  their  kind  treatment  of  their  slaves. 
The  only  marvel  is,  that  men  of  sense  can  be 
gulled  by  such  professions.  Despots  alwaj's  insist 
tliat  thej'  are  merciful.  The  greatest  tyrants  that 
ever  dripped  with  blood  have  assumed  the  titles 
of  "most  gracious,"  "most  clement,"  "most 
merciful,"  &.c.,  and  have  ordered  their  crouching 
vassals  to  accost  them  thus.  When  did  not  vice 
lay  claim  to  those  virtues  which  are  the  opposites 
of  its  habitual  crimes  ?  The  guilty,  according  to 
their  own  showing,  are  alwaj^s  innocent,  and 
cowards  brave,  and  drunkards  sober,  and  harlots 
chaste,  and  pickpockets  honest  to  a  fault.  Every 
body  understands  this.  When  a  man's  tongue 
grows  thick,  and  he  begins  to  hiccough  and  walk 
cross-legged,  we  expect  him,  as  a  matter  of  coiu-se, 
to  protest  that  he  is  not  drunk  ;  so  when  a  man  is 
always  singing  the  praises  of  his  own  honesty,  we 
instinctively  watch  his  movements  and  look  out 
for  our  pocket-books.  Whoever  is  simple  enough 
to  be  hoaxed  by  such  professions,  should  never  be 
trusted  in  the  streets  without  somebody  to  take 
care  of  him.  Human  nature  works  out  in  slave- 
holders juet  as  it  docs  in  other  men,  and  in  Ame. 
rican  slaveholders  just  as  in  English,  French, 
Turkish,  Algerine,  Roman  and  Grecian.  The 
Spartans  boasted  of  their  kindneps  to  their  slaves, 
while  they  whipped  them  to  death  by  thousands  at 


the  altars  of  their  gods.  The  Romans  lauded 
their  own  mild  treatment  of  their  bondmen,  while 
they  branded  their  names  on  their  flesh  with  hot 
irons,  and  when  old,  threw  them  into  their  fish 
ponds,  or  like  Cato  "  the  Just,"  starved  them  to 
death.  It  is  the  boast  of  the  Turks  that  thev 
treat  their  slaves  as  though  they  were  their  chil- 
dren, yet  their  common  name  for  them  is  "  dogs," 
and  for  the  merest  trifles,  their  feet  are  bastina- 
doed to  a  jelly,  or  their  heads  clipped  off  with  the 
scimetar.  The  Portuguese  pride  themselves  on 
their  gentle  bearing  toward  their  slaves,  yet  the 
streets  of  Rio  Janeiro  are  filled  with  naked  men 
and  women  yoked  in  pairs  to  carts  and  wagons, 
and  whipped  by  drivers  like  beasts  of  burden. 

Slaveholders,  the  world  over,  have  sung  the 
praises  of  their  tender  mercies  towards  their 
slaves.  Even  the  wretches  that  plied  the  African 
slave  trade,  tried  to  rebut  Clarkson's  proofs  of 
their  cruelties,  by  speeches,  affidavits,  and  pub- 
lished pamphlets,  setting  forth  the  accommoda- 
tions of  the  "  middle  passage,"  and  their  kind 
attentions  to  the  comfort  of  those  whom  they 
had  stolen  from  their  homes,  and  kept  stowed 
away  under  hatches,  during  a  voyage  of  four 
thousand  miles.  So,  according  to  the  testimony 
of  the  autocrat  of  the  Russias,  he  exercises  great 
clemency  towards  the  Poles,  though  he  exiles 
them  by  thousands  to  the  snows  of  Siberia,  and 
tramples  them  down  by  millions,  at  home.  Who 
discredits  the  atrocities  perpetrated  by  Ovando  in 
Hispaniola,  Pizarro  in  Peru,  and  Cortez  in  Mexi- 
co,— because  they  filled  the  ears  of  the  Spanisli 
Court  with  protestations  of  their  benignant  rule  ? 
While  they  were  yoking  the  enslaved  natives 
like  beasts  to  the  draught,  working  them  to  deatli 
by  thousands  in  their  mines,  hunting  them  with 
bloodhounds,  torturing  them  on  racks,  and 
broiling  them  on  beds  of  coals,  their  representa- 
tions to  the  mother  country  teemed  with  eulogies 
of  their  parental  sway !  The  bloody  atrocities  of 
Philip  II.,  in  the  expulsion  of  his  Moorish  sub- 
jects, are  matters  of  imperishable  history.  Who 
disbelieves  or  doxibts  them  ?  And  yet  his  cour- 
tiers magnified  his  virtues  and  chanted  his  cle- 
mency and  his  mercy,  while  the  wail  of  a  million 
victims,  smitten  down  by  a  tempest  of  fire  and 
slaughter  let  loose  at  his  bidding,  rose  above  the 
Tc  Deums  that  thundered  from  all  Spain's  cathe- 
drals. When  Louis  XIV.  revoked  the  edict  of 
Nantz,  and  proclaimed  two  millions  of  his  sub- 
jects free  plunder  for  persecution, — when  from 
the  English  channel  to  the  Pj-rennees  the  man- 
gled bodies  of  the  Protestants  were  dragged  on 
reeking  hurdles  by  a  shouting  populace,  he  claim- 
ed to  be  "  the  father  of  his  people,"  and  wrote 
himself  "  His  most  Christian  Majesty." 

But  we  will  not  anticipate  topics,  the  full  dis- 
cussion of   which  more  naturally   follows   than 


Introduction. 


precedes  the  inquiry  into  the  actual  condition  and 
treatment  of  slaves  in  the  United  States. 

As  slaveholders  and  their  apologists  are  volun- 
teer witnesses  in  their  own  cause,  and  are  flood- 
ing the  world  with  testimony  that  their  slaves 
are  kindly  treated ;  that  they  are  well  fed,  well 
clothed,  well  housed,  well  lodged,  moderately 
worked,  and  bountifully  provided  with  all  things 
needful  for  their  comfort,  we  propose — first,  to  dis- 
prove their  assertions  by  the  teettmony  of  a  multi- 
tude of  impartial  witnesses,  and  then  to  put  slave- 
holders themselves  through  a  course  of  cross-ques- 
tioning which  shall  draw  their  condemnation  out 
of  their  own  mouths.  We  will  prove  that  the  slaves 
in  the  United  States  are  treated  with  barbarous  in- 
humanity ;  that  they  are  overworked,  underfed, 
wretchedly  clad  and  lodged,  and  have  insuSicient 
sleep ;  that  they  are  often  made  to  wear  round 
their  necks  iron  •  collars  armed  with  prongs,  to 
drag  heavy  chains  and  weights  at  their  feet  while 
working  in  the  field,  and  to  wear  yokes,  and  bells, 
and  iron  horns  ;  that  they  are  often  kept  confined 
in  the  stocks  day  and  night  for  weeks  together, 
made  to  wear  gags  in  their  mouths  for  hours  or 
days,  have  some  of  their  front  teeth  torn  out  or 
broken  off,  that  they  may  be  easily  detected 
when  they  rim  away  ;  that  they  arc  frequently 
flogged  with  terrible  severity,  have  red  pepper 
rubbed  into  their  lacerated  flesh,  and  hot  brine, 
spirits  of  turpentine,  &c.,  poured  over  the  gashes 
to  increase  the  torture ;  that  they  are  often  strip- 
ped naked,  their  backs  and  limbs  cut  with  knives, 
bruised  and  mangled  by  scores  and  hundreds  of 
blows  with  the  paddle,  and  terribly  torn  by  the 
claws  of  cats,  drawn  over  them  by  tlicir  tormen- 
tors; that  they  are  often  hunted  with  bloodhounds 
and  shot  down  like  beasts,  or  torn  in  pieces  by 
dogs ;  that  they  are  often  suspended  by  the 
arms  and  whipped  and  beaten  till  they  faint,  and 
when  revived  by  restoratives,  beaten  again  till 
they  faint,  and  sometimes  till  they  die  ;  that  their 
ears  are  often  cut  off",  their  eyes  knocked  out, 
their  bones  broken,  their  flvish  branded  with  red 
hot  irons ;  that  they  are  maimed,  mutilated  and 
burned  to  death  over  slow  lircf-.  All  tlicse  things, 
and  more,  and  worse,  we  shall  prove.  Reader, 
we  know  whereof  we  affirm,  we  have  weighed 
it  well;  more  and  worse  WE  WILL  PROVE. 
Mark  these  words,  and  read  on ;  we  will  estabhsh 
all  these  facts  by  the  testimon}'  of  scores  and  hun- 
dreds of  eye  witnessses,  by  the  testimony  of  slave- 
holders in  all  parts  of  the  slave  states,  byslavchold- 
ing  members  of  Congress  and  of  state  legisla- 
tures, by  ambassadors  to  foreign  courts,  by 
judges,  by  doctors  of  divinity,  and  clergy- 
men of  all  denominations,  by  merchants, 
mechanics,  lawyers  and  physicians,  by  presi- 
dents and  professors  in  colleges  and  profes- 
sional   seminaries,    by    planters,    o^'"'secrs  and 


drivers.  We  shall  show,  not  merely  that  such 
deeds  are  committed,  but  that  they  are  frequent ; 
not  done  in  corners,  but  before  the  sun  ;  not  in  one 
of  the  slave  states,  but  in  all  of  them  ;  not  perpe- 
trated by  brutal  overseers  and  drivers  merely,  but 
by  magistrates,  by  legislators,  by  professors  of 
religion,  by  preachers  of  the  gospel,  by  governors 
of  states,  by  "  gentlemen  of  property  and  stand- 
ing," and  by  delicate  females  moving  in  the 
"  highest  circles  of  society."  We  know,  full 
well,  the  outcry  that  wOl  be  made  by  multitudes, 
at  these  declarations ;  the  multiform  cavils,  the 
flat  denials,  the  charges  of  "  exaggeration"  and 
"  falsehood"  so  often  bandied,  the  sneers  of  af 
fected  contempt  at  the  credulity  that  can  believe 
such  things,  and  the  rage  and  imprecations 
against  those  who  give  them  currency.  We 
know,  too,  the  threadbare  sophistries  by  whicii 
slaveholders  and  their  apologists  seek  to  evade 
such  testimony.  If  they  admit  that  such  deeds 
are  committed,  they  tell  us  that  the}'  are  exceed- 
ingly rare,  and  therefore  furnish  no  grounds  for 
judging  of  the  general  treatment  of  slaves ;  that 
occasionally  a  brutal  wretch  in  the  free  states 
barbarously  butchers  his  wife,  but  that  no  one 
tliinks  of  inferring  from  that,  the  general  treat- 
ment of  wives  at  the  North  and  West. 

They  tell  us,  also,  that  the  slaveholders  of  the 
South  are  provertiially  hospitable,  kind,  and 
generous,  and  it  is  incredible  that  they  can  per- 
petrate such  enormities  upon  human  beings  ;  fur- 
ther, that  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the}'  would 
thus  injure  their  own  property,  that  self  interest 
would  prompt  them  to  treat  their  slaves  with 
kindness,  as  none  but  fools  and  madmen  wantonly 
destroy  their  own  property ;  further,  that  Northern 
visitors  at  the  South  come  back  testifying  to  the 
kind  treatment  of  tlie  slaves,  and  that  the  slaves 
themselves  corroborate  such  representations.  All 
these  pleas,  and  scores  of  others,  are  bruited  in 
every  corner  of  the  free  States;  and  wiio  that 
hath  eyes  to  see,  has  not  sickened  at  tTie  blind- 
ness that  saw  not,  at  the  palsy  of  heart  that  felt  not, 
or  at  the  cowardice  and  sycophancy  that  dared 
not  expose  such  shallow  fallacies.  We  are  not 
to  be  turned  from  our  purpose  by  such  vapid  bab- 
blings. In  their  appropriate  places,  we  propose 
to  consider  these  objections  and  various  others, 
and  to  show  their  emptiness  and  folly. 

The  foregoing  declarations  touching  the  inflic- 
tions upon  slaves,  are  not  hap-hazard  assertions, 
nor  the  exaggerations  of  fiction  conjured  up  to 
carry  a  point ;  nor  are  they  the  rhapsodies  of  en- 
thusiasm, nor  crude  conclusions,  jumped  at  by 
hasty  and  imperfect  investigation,  nor  the  aim- 
less outpourings  either  of  sympathy  or  poetry ; 
but  they  are  proclamations  of  deliberate,  well- 
weighed  convictions,  produced  by  accumulations 
of  proof,  by  affirmations  and  affidavits,  by  writ- 


10 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Caulkins. 


ten  testimonies  and  statements  of  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses who  speak  what  tliey  know  and  testify 
what  they  have  seen,  and  all  these  impre^ably 
fortified  by  proofs  innumerable,  in  the  relation  of 
the  slaveholder  to  his  slave,  the  nature  of  arbitrary 
power,  and  the  nature  and  history  of  man. 

Of  the  witnesses  whose  testimony  is  embodied 
in  the  following  pages,  a  majority  are  slavehold- 
ers, many  of  the  remainder  have  been  slaveholders, 
but  now  reside  in  free  States. 

Another  class  whose  testimony  will  be  given, 
consists  of  those  who  have  furnished  the  results 
of  their  own  observation  during  periods  of  resi- 
dence and  travel  in  the  slave  States. 

We  will  first  present  the  reader  with  a  few  Per- 
sonal Narratives  furnished  by  individuals,  na- 
tives of  slave  states  and  others,  embodying,  in  the 
main,  the  results  of  their  own  observation  in  the 
midst  of  slavery — facts  and  scenes  of  which  they 
were  eye-witnesses. 

In  the  next  place,  to  give  the  reader  as  clear 
and  definite  a  view  of  the  actual  condition  of 
slaves  as  possible,  we  propose  to  make  specific 


points,  to  pass  in  review  the  various  particulars 
in  the  slave's  condition,  simply  presentinsT  sufii- 
cicnt  testimony  under  each  head  to  settle  the 
question  in  every  candid  mind.  The  examination 
will  be  conducted  by  stating  distinct  propositions, 
and  in  the  following  order  of  topics. 

1.  The  food  of  the  slaves,  the  kinds,  quality 
and  quantity,  also,  the  number  and  time  of 

meals  EACH  DAY,   &C. 

2.  Their  hours  of  labor  and  rest. 

3.  Their  clothing. 

4.  Their  dwellings. 

5.  Their  privations  and  inflictions. 

6.  In  conclusion,  a  variety  of  objections  and 
arguments  will  be  considered  which  are  used 
by  the  advocates  of  slavery  to  set  aside  the 
force  of  testimony,  and  to  show  that  the  slaves 
are  kindly  treated. 

Between  the  larger  divisions  of  the  work,  brief 
personal  narratives  will  be  inserted,  containing  a 
mass  of  facts  and  testimony,  both  general  and 
specific. 


PERSONAL   NARRATIVES. 


Mr.  Nehemiah  Caulkins,  of  Waterford,  New 
London  Co.,  Connecticut,  has  furnished  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  with  the  following  statements  rela- 
tive to  the  condition  and  treatment  of  slaves,  in 
the  south  eastern  part  of  North  Carolina.  Most 
of  the  facts  related  by  Mr.  Caulkins  fell  under 
his  personal  observation.  The  air  of  candor 
and  honesty  that  pervades  the  naiTative,  the 
manner  in  which  Mr.  C.  has  drawn  it  up,  the 
good  sense,  just  views,  conscience  and  heart 
which  it  exhibits,  are  sufficient  of  themselves  to 
commend  it  to  all  who  have  ears  to  hear. 

The  Committee  have  no  personal  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Caulkins,  but  they  have  ample  testimo- 
nials from  the  most  respectable  sources  ;  all  of 
wliich  represent  him  to  be  a  man  whose  long  es- 
tablished character  for  sterling  integrity,  sound 
moral  principle  and  piety,  have  secured  for  him 
the  uniform  respect  and  confidence  of  those  who 
know  him. 

Without  further  preface  the  following  testimo- 
nials are  submitted  to  the  reader. 

"  This  may  certify,  that  we  the  subscribers  have  lived 
for  a  number  of  years  past  in  tlie  neighborliood  witli  Mr. 
Nehcmiali  Caulkins,  and  liave  no  hesitation  in  stating  that 
we  considfr  him  a  man  of  hijh  rcspt-ctabiiily  and  that  his 
character  for  tiutli  and  veracity  is  uiiimpiarliablc." 

Peter  C'omstock.  I).  G.  Oris. 

A.  F.  Perkins,  M.D.  Piiiup  Moroan. 

Isaac  Beebe.  James  Rogers,  M.  D." 

LODOWICK  Bebbb. 
ITattrford,  Ct.,  Jan.  Kth,  1839. 


Mr.  Comstock  is  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  Mr. 
L.  Becbe  is  the  Town  Clerk  of  Waterford.  Mr. 
J.  Becbe  is  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church. 
Mr.  Otis  is  a  member  of  the  Congregational 
Church.  Mr.  Morgan  is  a  Justice  of  the  Peace, 
and  Messrs.  Perkins  and  Rogers  are  designated  by 
their  titles.  All  those  gentlemen  are  citizens  of 
Waterford,  Connecticut. 

"  To  whom  it  may  concern.  This  may  certify  that  Mr. 
Nehemiah  Caulkins,  of  Wateiford,  in  New  London  County, 
is  a  near  neighbor  to  the  subscriber,  and  has  been  for  many 
years.  I  do  consider  liim  a  man  of  itnquestionahle  veracity 
and  certify  that  he  is  so  considered  by  people  to  wliom  he 
is  personally  known.  Edward  K.  Warren." 

Jan.  15th,  1839. 

Mr.  Warren  is  a  Commissioner  (Associate 
Judge)  of  the  County  Court,  for  New  London 
County. 

"  This  may  certify  that  Mr.  Neheniiali  Caulkins,  of  the 
town  of  Waterford,  County  of  New  London,  and  State  of 
Connecticut,  is  a  member  of  the  first  Baptist  Chuich  in  said 
Waterford,  is  in  good  standing,  and  is  esteemed  by  us  a 
inaTi  of  truth  and  veracity. 

Francis  Darrow,    Pastorof  said  Church." 

Waterford,  Jan.  IGtIt,  1839. 

"  This  may  certify  that  Nehemiah  Caulkins,  of  Water- 
ford, lives  near  me,  and  I  always  esteemed  liini,  and  believe 
hiin  to  be  a  man  of  truth  .ind  veracity. 

Elisha  Bbckwith." 

Jan.  ^Gtk,  1839. 

Mr.  Beckwith  is  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  a  Post 
Master,  and  a  Deacon  of  the  Baptist  Ciuirch. 

Mr.  Dwight  P.  .lanes,  a  member  of  the  Second 
Congregational  Church  in  the  city  of  New  Lon- 
don, in  a  recent  letter,  says ; 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Caulkins. 


11 


"  Mr.  Caulkins  is  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church 
m  Watcrford,  and  in  every  respect  a  very  worthy 
citizen.  I  have  labored  with  him  in  the  Sabbath 
School,  and  know  him  to  be  a  man  of  active 
piety.  The  most  entire  confidence  may  be  placed 
in  the  truth  of  his  statements.  Where  he  is 
known,  no  one  will  call  them  in  question." 

We  close  these  testimonials  with  an  extract,  of  a 
letter  from  William  Bolles,  Esq.,  a  well  known 
and  respected  citizen  of  New  London,  Ct. 

"  Mr.  Nehemiah  Caulkins  resides  in  t?ie  town 
of  Watcrford,  about  si.x  miles  from  this  City. 
His  opportunities  to  acquire  exact  knowledge  in 
relation  to  Slavery,  in  that  section  of  our  country. 


to  which  his  narrative  is  confined,  have  been  very 
great.  He  is  a  carpenter,  and  was  employed 
principally  on  the  plantations,  working  at  his 
trade,  being  thus  almost  constantly  in  the  com. 
pany  of  the  slaves  as  well  as  of  their  masters. 
His  full  heart  readily  responded  to  the  call,  [for  in- 
formation relative  to  slavery,]  for,  as  he  expressed 
it,  he  had  long  desired  that  others  might  know 
what  he  had  seen,  being  confident  that  a  general 
knowledge  of  facts  as  they  exist,  would  greatly 
promote  the  overthrow  of  the  system.  He  is  a 
man  of  undoubted  character  ;  and  where  known, 
his  statements  need  no  corroboration. 

Yours,  &c.  William  Bolles. 


NARRATIVE   OF  MR.   CAULKINS. 


I  feel  it  my  duty  to  tell  some  things  that  I 
know  about  slavery,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  awak- 
en more  feeling  at  the  North  in  behalf  of  the 
slave.  The  treatment  of  the  slaves  on  the  plan- 
tations where  I  had  the  greatest  opportunity  of 
getting  knowledge,  was  not  so  bad  as  that  on 
some  neighboring  estates,  where  the  owners 
were  noted  for  their  cruelty.  There  were,  how- 
ever, other  estates  in  the  vicinity,  where  the 
treatment  was  better;  the  slaves  were  better 
clothed  and  fed,  were  not  worked  so  hard,  and 
more  attention  was  paid  to  their  quarters. 

The  scenes  that  I  have  witnessed  are  enough 
to  harrow  up  the  soul ;  but  could  the  slave  be 
permitted  to  tell  the  story  of  his  sufferings,  which 
no  white  man,  not  linked  with  slavery,  is  allowed 
to  know,  the  land  would  vomit  out  the  horrible 
system,  slaveholders  and  all,  if  they  would  not 
unclinch  their  grasp  upon  their  defenceless  vic- 
tims. 

I  spent  eleven  winters,  between  the  years 
1824  and  1835,  in  the  state  of  North  Carolina, 
mostly  in  the  vicinity  of  Wilmington  ;  and  four 
out  of  the  eleven  on  the  estate  of  Mr.  John 
Swan,  five  or  six  miles  from  that  place.  There 
were  on  his  plantation  about  seventy  slaves,  male 
and  female :  some  were  married,  and  others 
lived  together  as  man  and  wife,  without  even  a 
mock  ceremony.  With  their  owners  generally, 
it  is  a  matter  of  indifference ;  the  marriage  of 
slaves  not  being  recognized  by  the  slave  code. 
The  slaves,  however,  think  much  of  being  mar- 
ried by  a  clergyman. 

Tlie  cabins  or  huts  of  the  slaves  were  small, 
and  were  built  principally  by  the  slaves  them- 
eelves,  as  they  could  find  time  on  Sundays  and 
moonlight  nights ;  they  went  into  the  swamps, 
cut  the  logs,  backed  or  hauled  them  to  the 
quarters,  and  put  up  their  cabins. 

When  I  first  knew  Mr.  Swan's  plantation,  his 
overseer  was  a  man  who  had  been  a  Methodist 
minister.  He  treated  the  slaves  with  great 
cruelty.  His  reason  for  leaving  the  ministry 
and  becoming  an  overseer,  as  I  was  informed, 
was  this  :  his  wife  died,  at  which  providence  he 
was  so  enraged,  that  he  swore  he  wouM  not 
preach  for  the  Lord  another  day.  This  man 
continued  on  the  plantation  about  three  years ; 
at  the  close  of  which,  on  settlement  of  accounts, 
Mr.  Swan  owed  him  about  $400,  for  which  he 
turned  him  out  a  negro  woman,  and  about  twen- 


ty acres  of  land.  He  built  a  log  hut,  and  took 
the  woman  to  live  with  him  ;  since  which,  I 
have  been  at  his  hut,  and  seen  fom-  or  five  mu- 
latto children.  He  has  been  appointed  a.  justice 
of  the  peace,  and  his  place  as  overseer  was  after- 
wards occupied  by  a  Mr.  Galloway. 

It  is  customary  in  that  part  of  the  country,  to 
let  the  hogs  run  in  the  woods.  On  one  occasion 
a  slave  caught  a  pig  about  two  months  old,  vi'hich 
he  carried  to  his  quarters.  The  overseer,  getting 
information  of  the  fact,  went  to  the  field  where 
he  was  at  work,  and  ordered  him  to  come  to 
him.  The  slave  at  once  suspected  it  was  some- 
thing about  the  pig,  and  fearing  punishment, 
dropped  his  hoe  and  ran  for  the  woods.  He  had 
got  but  a  few  rods,  when  the  overseer  raised  his 
gun,  loaded  with  duck  shot,  and  brought  him 
down.  It  is  a  common  practice  for  overseers  to 
go  into  the  field  armed  with  a  gun  or  pistols,  and 
sometimes  both.  He  was  taken  up  by  the 
slaves  and  carried  to  the  plantation  hospital,  and 
the  physician  sent  for.  A  ])hysician  was  employ- 
ed by  the  year  to  take  care  of  the  sick  or  wound, 
ed  slaves.  In  about  six  weeks  this  slave  got  bet- 
ter, and  was  able  to  come  out  of  the  hospital. 
He  came  to  the  mill  where  I  was  at  work,  and 
asked  me  to  examine  his  body,  which  I  did,  and 
counted  twenty-six  duck  shot  still  remaining  in 
his  flesh,  though  the  doctor  had  removed  a  num- 
ber while  he  was  laid  up. 

There  was  a  slave  on  Mr.  Swan's  plantation, 
by  the  name  of  Harry,  who,  during  the  absence 
of  his  master,  ran  away  and  secreted  himself  in 
the  woods.  This  the  slaves  sometimes  do,  when 
the  master  is  absent  for  several  weeks,  to  escape 
the  cruel  treatment  of  the  overseer.  It  is  com- 
mon for  them  to  make  preparations,  by  secreting 
a  mortar,  a  hatchet,  some  cooking  utensils,  and 
whatever  things  they  can  get  that  will  enable 
them  to  live  while  they  are  in  the  woods  or 
swamps.  Harry  staid  about  three  months,  and 
lived  by  robbing  the  rice  grounds,  and  by  such 
other  means  as  came  in  his  way.  The  slaves 
generally  know  where  the  runaway  is  secreted, 
and  visit  him  at  night  and  on  Sundays.  On  the 
return  of  his  master,  some  of  the  slaves  were 
sent  for  Harry.  Wlien  he  came  homo  lie  was 
seized  and  confined  in  the  stocks.  The  stocks 
were  built  in  the  barn,  and  consisted  of  two 
heavy  pieces  of  timber,  ten  or  more  feet  in  length, 
and  about  seven  inches  wide ;  tlie  lower  one,  on 


12 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Caulkins. 


the  floor,  has  a  number  of  holes  or  places  cut  in 
it,  for  the  ancles ;  the  upper  piece,  being  of  the 
same  dimensions,  is  fastened  at  one  end  by  a 
hinge,  and  is  brought  down  after  the  ancles  arc 
l>laced  in  Ihc  holes,  and  secured  by  a  clasp  and 
padlock  at  the  other  end.  In  this  manner  the 
person  is  left  to  sit  on  the  floor.  Harry  was 
kept  in  the  stocks  day  and  night  for  a  week,  and 
flogged  evert/  morning.  After  this,  he  was  taken 
out  one  morning,  a  log  chain  fastened  around  his 
neck,  the  two  ends  dragging  on  the  ground,  and 
he  sent  to  the  field,  to  do  his  task  with  the  other 
slaves.  At  night  he  was  again  put  in  the  stocks, 
in  the  morning  he  was  sent  to  the  field  in  the 
same  manner,  and  thus  dragged  out  another 
week. 

The  overseer  was  a  very  miserly  fellow,  and 
restricted  his  wife  in  what  are  considered  the 
comforts  of  life — such  as  tea,  sugar,  &c.  To 
make  up  for  this,  she  set  her  wits  to  work,  and,  by 
the  help  of  a  slave,  named  Joe,  used  to  take  from 
the  plantation  whatever  she  could  conveniently, 
and  watch  her  opportunity  during  her  husband's 
absence,  and  send  Joe  to  sell  them  and  buy  for 
her  such  things  as  she  directed.  Once  when 
her  husband  was  away,  she  told  Joe  to  kill  and 
dress  one  of  the  pigs,  sell  it,  and  get  her  some  tea, 
sugar,  &.C.  Joe  did  as  he  was  bid,  and  she  gave 
hirn  the  ofFal  for  his  services.  When  Galloway 
returned,  not  suspecting  his  wife,  he  asked  her  if 
she  knew  what  had  become  of  his  pig.  She  told 
him  she  suspected  one  of  the  slaves,  naming  him, 
had  stolen  it,  for  she  had  heard  a  pig  squeal  the 
evening  before.  The  overseer  called  the  slave 
up,  and  charged  him  with  the  theft.  He  denied 
it,  and  said  he  knew  nothing  about  it.  The  over- 
seer still  charged  him  with  it,  and  told  him  he 
would  give  him  one  week  to  think  of  it,  and  if  he 
did  not  confess  the  theft,  or  find  out  who  did  steal 
the  pig,  he  would  flog  every  negro  on  the  planta- 
tion ;  before  the  week  was  up  it  was  ascertained 
that  Joe  had  killed  the  pig.  He  was  called  up 
and  questioned,  and  admitted  that  he  had  done 
so,  and  told  the  overseer  that  he  did  it  by  the  or- 
der of  Mrs.  Galloway,  and  that  she  directed  him 
to  buy  some  sugar,  &c.  with  the  money.  Mrs. 
Galloway-.gave  Joe  the  lie ;  and  he  was  terribly 
flogged.  Joe  told  me  he  had  been  several  times 
to  the  smoke-house  with  Mrs.  G,  and  taken  hams 
and  sold  them,  which  her  husband  told  me  he 
supposed  were  stolen  by  the  negroes  on  a  neigh- 
boring plantation.  Mr.  Swan,  hearing  of  the  cir- 
cumstajice,  told  me  he  believed  Joe's  story,  but 
that  his  statement  would  not  be  taken  as  proof; 
and  if  every  slave  on  the  plantation  told  the  same 
f'lory  it  could  not  be  received  as  evidence  against 
a  white  person. 

To  show  the  manner  in  which  old  and  worn- 
out  slaves  are  sometimes  treated,  I  will  state  a 
fact  Galloway  owned  a  man  about  seventy 
vears  of  age.  The  old  man  was  sick  and  went  to 
his  hut ;  laid  himself  down  on  some  straw  with 
his  feet  to  the  fire,  covered  by  a  piece  of  an  old 
hlanket,  and  there  lay  four  or  five  days,  groaning 
In  great  distress,  without  any  attention  being  paid 
him  by  his  master,  until  death  ended  his  miseries  ; 
lie  was  then  taken  out  and  buried  with  as  little 
ceremony  and  respect  as  would  be  paid  1o  a  brute. 

There  is  a  practice  prevalent  among  the  plant- 
ers, of  letting  a  negro  oft'  from  severe  and  long- 


continued  punishment  on  account  of  the  mterces. 
sion  of  some  white  person,  who  pleads  in  liis  be- 
half, that  he  believes  the  negro  will  behave  better ; 
that  he  promises  well,  and  he  believes  he  will 
keep  his  promise,  &c.  The  planters  sometimes 
get  tired  of  punishing  a  negro,  and,  wanting  his 
services  in  the  field,  they  get  some  white  person 
to  come,  and,  in  the  presence  of  the  slave,  inter- 
cede for  him.  At  one  time  a  negro,  named 
Charles,  was  confined  in  the  stocks  in  the  build, 
ing  where  I  was  at  work,  and  had  been  severely 
whipped  several  times.  He  begged  me  to  inter- 
cede for  him  and  try  to  get  him  released.  I  told 
him  I  would ;  and  when  his  master  came  in  to 
whip  him  again,  I  went  up  to  him  and  told  him  I 
had  been  talking  with  Charles,  and  he  had  pro- 
mised to  behave  better,  &c.,  and  requested  him 
not  to  punish  him  any  more,  but  to  let  him  go. 
Ho  then  said  to  Charles,  "  As  Mr.  Caulkins  has 
been  pleading  for  you,  I  will  let  you  go  on  his 
accoimt ;"  and  accordingly  released  him. 

Women  are  generally  shown  some  little  indul- 
gence  for  three  or  four  weeks  previous  to  child- 
birth ;  they  are  at  such  times  not  often  punished 
if  they  do  not  finish  the  task  assigned  them  ;  it  is, 
in  some  cases,  passed  over  with  a  severe  repri- 
mand, and  sometimes  without  any  notice  being 
taken  of  it.  They  are  generally  allowed  four 
weeks  after  the  birth  of  a  child,  before  they  are 
compelled  to  go  into  the  field,  they  then  take  the 
child  with  them,  attended  sometimes  by  a  little 
girl  or  boy,  from  the  age  of  four  to  six,  to  take 
care  of  it  while  the  mother  is  at  work.  When 
there  is  no  child  that  can  be  spared,  or  not  young 
enough  for  this  service,  the  mother,  after  nursing, 
lays  it  under  a  tree,  or  bj'  the  side  of  a  fence,  and 
goes  to  her  task,  returning  at  stated  intervals  to 
nurse  it.  While  I  was  on  this  plantation,  a  little 
negro  girl,  six  years  of  age,  destroyed  the  life  of  a 
child  about  two  months  old,  which  was  left  in  her 
care.  It  seems  this  little  nurse,  so  called,  got 
tired  of  her  charge  and  the  labor  of  carrying  it  to 
the  quarters  at  night,  the  mother  being  obliged  to 
work  as  long  as  she  could  see.  One  evening  she 
nursed  the  infant  at  sunset  as  usual,  and  sent  it 
to  the  quarters.  The  little  girl,  on  her  way  home, 
had  to  cross  a  run,  or  brook,  which  led  down  into 
the  swamp ;  when  she  came  to  the  brook  she  fol- 
lowed it  into  the  swamp,  thsK  took  the  infant  and 
plunged  it  head  foremost  inro  the  water  and  mud, 
wliere  it  stuck  fast ;  she  there  left  it  and  went  to 
the  negro  quarters.  When  the  mother  came  in 
from  tlie  field,  she  asked  the  girl  where  the  child 
was  ;  she  told  her  she  had  brought  it  home,  but 
did  not  know  where  it  was  ;  the  overseer  was  im- 
mediately  informed,  search  was  made,  and  it  was 
found  as  above  stated,  and  dead.  The  little  girl 
was  shut  up  in  the  barn,  and  confined  there  two 
or  three  weeks,  when  a  speculator  came  along  and 
bought  her  for  two  hundred  dollars. 

The  slaves  are  obliged  to  work  from  daylight 
till  dark,  as  long  as  they  can  see.  When  they 
have  tasks  assigned,  which  is  often  the  case,  a 
few  of  the  strongest  and  most  ex;)crt,  sometimes 
finish  them  before  sunset;  others  will  be  obliged 
to  work  till  eight  or  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
All  must  finish  their  tasks  or  take  a  flogging. 
The  whip  and  gun,  or  pistol,  are  companions  of 
the  overseer ;  the  former  he  uses  very  fjequently 
upon  the  negroes,  during  their  hours  of  labor, 


Personal  Narratives— Mr.  Caulkins. 


13 


without  regard  to  age  or  sex.  Scarcely  a  day 
passed  while  I  was  on  the  plantation,  in  which 
some  of  the  slaves  were  not  whipped ;  I  do  not 
mean  that  they  were  struck  a  few  blows  merely,  but 
had  a  set  flogging.  The  same  labor  is  commonly 
assigned  to  men  and  women, — such  as  digging 
ditches  in  the  rice  marshes,  clearing  up  land, 
chopping  cord-wood,  threshing,  &c.  I  have 
known  the  women  go  into  the  barn  as  soon  as 
they  could  see  in  the  morning,  and  vi'ork  as  late 
as  they  could  see  at  night,  threshing  rice  with  the 
flail,  (they  now  have  a  threshing  machine,)  and 
when  they  could  see  to  thresh  no  longer,  they  had 
to  gather  up  the  rice,  carry  it  up  stairs,  and  de- 
posit it  in  the  granary. 

The  allowance  of  clothing  on  this  plantation  to 
each  slave,  was  given  out  at  Christmas  for  the 
year,  and  consisted  of  one  pair  of  coarse  shoes, 
and  enough  coarse  cloth  to  make  a  jacket  and 
trowsers.  If  the  man  has  a  wife  she  makes  it 
up ;  if  not,  it  is  made  up  in  the  house.  The 
slaves  on  this  plantation,  being  near  Wilmington, 
procured  themselves  extra  clothing  by  working 
Sundays  and  moonlight  nights,  cutting  cord- 
wood  in  the  swamps,  which  they  had  to  back 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  river  ;  they  would 
then  get  a  permit  from  their  master,  and  taking 
the  wood  in  their  canoes,  carry  it  to  Wilmington, 
and  sell  it  to  the  vessels,  or  dispose  of  it  as  they 
best  could,  and  with  the  money  buy  an  old  jacket 
of  the  sailors,  some  coarse  cloth  for  a  shirt,  &c. 
They  sometimes  gather  the  moss  from  the  trees, 
which  they  cleanse  and  take  to  market.  The 
women  receive  their  allowance  of  the  same  kind  of 
cloth  which  the  men  have.  This  they  make  into 
a  frock ;  if  they  have  any  under  garments  they 
must  procure  them  for  themselves.  When  the 
slaves  get  a  permit  to  leave  the  plantation,  they 
sometimes  make  all  ring  again  by  singing  the  fol- 
lowing significant  ditty,  which  shows  that  after 
all  there  is  a  flow  of  spirits  in  the  human  breast 
which  for  a  while,  at  least,  enables  them  to  forget 
their  wretchedness.* 

Hurra,  for  good  ole  Massa, 
He  giv  me  de  pass  to  go  to  de  city 

Hurra,  for  good  ole  Missis, 
She  bile  de  pot,  and  giv  me,  de  licker. 

Hurra,  I'm  goin  to  de  city. 

Kvery  Saturday  iMght  the  slaves  receive  their 
allowance  of  provisions,  which  must  last  them 
till  the  next  Saturday  night.  "  Potatoe  time,"  as 
it  is  called,  begins  about  the  middle  of  July.  The 
slave  may  measure  for  himself,  the  overseer  being 
present,  half  a  bushel  of  sweet  potatoes,  and 
heap  the  measure  as  long  as  they  will  lie  on  ;  I 
have,  however,  seen  the  overseer,  if  he  think  the 
negro  is  getting  too  many,  kick  the  measure  ;  and 
if  any  fall  off,  tell  him  he  has  got  his  measure. 
No  salt  is  furnished  them  to  eat  with  their  pota- 
toes. When  rice  or  corn  is  given,  they  give  them 
a  little  salt ;  sometimes  half  a  pint  of  molasses 
is  given,  but  not  often.  The  quantity  of  rice, 
which  is  of  the  small,  broken,  unsaleable  kind,  is 

*  Slaves  sometimes  sing,  and  so  do  convicts  in  jails  under 
sentence,  and  both  for  the  same;  reason.  Their  singing 
proves  that  they  want  to  be  happy  not  that  they  are  so.  It  is 
the  means  that  they  use  to  make  tliemselves  happy,  not  the 
evidence  that  they  are  bo  already.  Sometimes,  doubtless, 
tlie  excitement  of  song  whelms  their  misery  in  momentary 
oblivion.  He  who  argues  from  this  that  they  have  no  con- 
scious misery  to  forget,  knows  as  little  of  human  nature  as 
of  slavery.— Editor. 


one  peck.  When  corn  is  given  them,  their  allow- 
ance is  the  same,  and  if  they  get  it  ground,  (Mr. 
Swan  had  a  mill  on  his  plantation,)  they  must 
give  one  quart  for  grinding,  thus  reducing  their 
weekly  allowance  to  seven  quarts.  When  fisji 
(mullet)  were  plenty,  they  were  allowed,  in  addi- 
tion, one  fish.  As  to  meat,  they  seldom  had  any. 
I  do  not  think  they  had  an  allowance  of  meat 
oftener  than  once  in  two  or  three  months,  and 
then  the  quantity  was  very  small.  When  they 
went  into  the  field  to  work,  they  took  some  of 
the  meal  or  rice  and  a  pot  with  them ;  the  pots 
were  given  to  an  old  woman,  who  placed  two 
poles  parallel,  set  the  pofs  on  them,  and  kindled 
a  fire  underneath  for  cooking ;  she  took  salt  with 
her  and  seasoned  the  messes  as  she  thought  pro- 
per. When  their  breakfast  was  ready,  which 
was  generally  about  teh  or  eleven  o'clock,  they 
were  called  from  labor,  ate,  and  returned  to  work ; 
in  the  afternoon,  dinner  was  pre])ared  in  the  same 
way.  They  had  but  two  meals  a  day  while  in 
the  field ;  if  they  wanted  more,  they  cooked  for 
themselves  after  they  returned  to  their  quarters 
at  night.  At  the  time  of  killing  hogs  on  the 
plantation,  the  pluck,  entrails,  and  blood  were 
given  to  the  slaves. 

When  I  first  went  upon  Mr.  Swan's  plantation, 
I  saw  a  slave  in  shackles  or  fetters,  which  were 
fastened  around  each  ankle  and  firmly  riveted, 
connected  together  by  a  chain.  To  the  middle 
of  this  chain  he  had  fastened  a  string,  so  as  in  a 
manner  to  suspend  them  and  keep  them  from 
galling  his  ankles.  This  slave,  whose  name  was 
Frank,  was  an  inteUigent,  good  looking  man,  and 
a  very  good  mechanic.  There  was  nothing  vi- 
cious in  his  character,  but  he  was  one  of  those 
high-spirited  and  daring  men,  that  whips,  chains, 
fetters,  and  all  the  means  of  cruelty  in  the  power 
of  slavery,  could  not  subdue.  Mr.  S.  had  em- 
ployed a  Mr.  Beckwith  to  repair  a  boat,  and  told 
him  Frank  was  a  good  mechanic,  and  he  might 
have  his  services.  Frank  was  sent  for,  his  shackles 
still  on.  Mr.  Beckwith  set  him  to  work  making 
trunnels,  &c.  I  was  employed  in  putting  up  a 
building,  and  after  Mr.  Beckwith  had  done  with 
Frank,  he  was  sent  for  to  assist  me.  Mr.  Swan 
sent  him  to  a  blacksmith's  shop  and  had  his 
shackles  cut  off  with  a  cold  chisel.  Frank  was 
afterwards  sold  to  a  cotton  planter. 

I  will  relate  one  circumstance,  which  shows 
the  httlc  regard  that  is  paid  to  the  feelings  of  the 
slave.  During  the  time  that  Mr.  Isaiah.,Rogers 
was  superintending  the  building  of  a  rice  machine, 
one  of  the  slaves  complained  of  a  severe  tooth- 
ache. Swan  asked  Mr.  Rogers  to  take  his  ham. 
mer  and  knock  out  the  tooth. 

There  was  a  slave  on  the  plantation  named 
Ben,  a  waiting  man.  I  occupied  a  room  in  the 
same  hut,  and  had  frequent  conversations  with 
him.  Ben  was  a  kind-hearted  man,  and,  I  be- 
lieve, a  Christian  ;  he  would  always  ask  a  bless- 
ing before  he  sat  down  to  eat,  and  was  in  tlie  con- 
stant practice  of  praying  morning  and  night. — 
One  day  when  I  was  at  the  hut,  Ben  was  sent 
for  to  go  to  the  house.  Ben  sighed  deeply  and 
went.  He  soon  returned  with  a  girl  about  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  whom  one  of  Mr.  Swan's 
daughters  had  ordered  him  to  flog.  He  brought 
her  into  tlie  room  where  I  was,  and  told  her  to 
stand  there  wliile  he  went  into  the  next  room  :  I 


14  • 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Caulkina. 


heard  him  groan  again  as  he  went.  While  there 
I  heard  his  voice,  and  he  was  engaged  in  prayer. 
After  a  few  minutes  he  returned  with  a  large  cow- 
hide, and  stood  before  the  girl,  without  saying  a 
word.  I  concluded  he  wished  me  to  leave  the 
hut,  which  I  did  ;  and  immediately  after  I  heard 
the  girl  scream.  At  every  blow  she  would  shriek, 
"  Do,  Ben  !  oh  do,  Ben !"  This  is  a  common  ex- 
pression of  the  slaves  to  the  person  whipping 
them  :  "  Do,  Massa  !"  or,  "  Do,  Missus  !" 

After  she  had  gone,  I  asked  Ben  what  she  was 
whipped  for  :  he  told  me  she  had  done  something 
to  displease  her  yoimg  missus  ;  and  in  boxing 
her  ears,  and  otherwise  beating  her,  she  had 
scratched  her  finger  by  a  pin  in  the  g'rl's  dress, 
for  which  she  sent  her  to  be  flogged.  I  asked 
him  if  he  stripped  her  before  flogging ;  he  said, 
yes  ;  he  did  not  like  to  do  this,  but  was  obliged 
to :  he  said  he  was  once  ordered  to  whip  a  wo- 
man, which  he  did  without  stripping  her  :  on  her 
return  to  the  house,  her  mistress  examined  her 
>back ;  and  not  seeing  any  marks,  he  was  sent  for, 
and  asked  why  he  had  not  whipped  her  :  he  re- 
plied that  he  had  ;  she  said  she  saw  no  marks, 
and  asked  him  if  he  liad  made  her  pull  her  clothes 
off;  lie  said.  No.  She  then  told  him,  that  when 
he  whipped  any  more  of  the  women,  he  must 
make  them  strip  off"  their  clothes,  as  well  as  the 
men,  and  flog  Ihcm  on  their  bare  backs,  or  he 
should  be  flogged  himself. 

Ben  often  appeared  very  gloomy  and  sad :  I 
have  frequently  heard  him,  when  in  his  room, 
mourning  over  his  condition,  and  exclaim,  "  Poor 
African  slave  !  Poor  African  slave !"  Whipping 
was  so  common  an  occurrence  on  this  plantation, 
that  it  would  be  too  great  a  repetition  to  state 
the  many  and  severe  floggings  I  have  seen  in- 
flicted on  the  slaves.  They  were  flogged  for  not 
performing  their  tasks,  for  being  careless,  slow, 
or  not  in  time,  for  going  to  the  fire  to  warm,  &c. 
&c. ;  and  it  often  seemed  as  if  occasions  were 
sought  as  an  excuse  for  punishing  them. 

On  one  occasion,  I  heard  the  overseer  charge 
the  hands  to  be  at  a  certain  place  the  next  morn- 
ing at  sun-rise.  I  was  present  in  the  morning, 
ill  company  with  my  brother,  when  the  hands  ar- 
rived. Joe,  the  slave  already  spoken  of,  came 
running,  all  out  of  breath,  about  five  minutes  be- 
hind the  time,  when,  without  asking  any  ques- 
tions, the  overseer  told  him  to  take  off  his  jacket. 
Joe  took  off  his  jacket.  He  had  on  a  piece  of  a 
shirt;  he  told  him  to  take  it  off:  Joe  took  it  off: 
he  then  whipped  him  with  a  heavy  cow-hide  full 
six  feet  long.  At  every  stroke  Joe  would  spring 
from  the  ground,  and  scream,  "  O  my  God  I  Do, 
Massa  Galloway  1"  My  brother  was  so  exasper- 
ated, that  he  turned  to  me  and  said,  "  If  I  were 
Joe,  I  would  kill  tlie  overseer  if  1  knew  I  should 
be  shot  the  next  minute." 

In  the  winter  the  horn  blew  at  about  four  in 
the  morning,  and  all  the  threshers  were  required 
to  be  at  the  threshing  floor  in  fifteen  minutes  after. 
They  had  to  go  about  a  quarter  ol  a  mile  from 
their  quarters.  Galloway  would  stand  near  the 
entrance,  and  all  who  did  not  come  in  time  would 
get  a  blow  over  tlie  back  or  head  as  heavy  as  he 
could  strike.  I  have  seen  him,  at  such  times, 
follow  after  them,  striking  furiously  a  number  of 
blows,  and  every  one  followed  by  their  screams. 
I  have  seen  the  women  go  to  their  work  after  [ 


such  a  flogging,  crying  and  taking  on  most  pite- 

ously. 

It  is  almost  "impossible  to  believe  that  human 
nature  can  endure  such  hardships  and  sufferings 
as  the  slaves  have  to  go  through :  I  have  seen 
them  driven  into  a  ditch  in  a  rice  swamp  to  bail 
out  the  water,  in  order  to  put  down  a  flood-gate, 
when  they  had  to  break  the  ice,  and  there  stand 
in  the  water  among  the  ice  until  it  was  bailed 
out.  I  have  often  known  the  hands  to  be  taken 
from  the  field,  sent  down  the  river  in  flats  or  boats 
to  Wilmington,  absent  from  twenty-four  to  thirty 
hours,  without  any  thing  to  eat,  no  provision  being 
made  for  these  occasions. 

Galloway  kept  medicine  on  hand,  that  in  case 
any  of  the  slaves  were  sick,  he  could  give  it  to 
them  without  sending  for  the  physician  ;  but  he 
always  kept  a  good  look  out  that  they  did  not 
sham  sickness.  When  any  of  them  excited  his 
suspicions,  he  would  make  them  rake  the  medi- 
cine in  his  presence,  and  would  give  them  a  rap 
on  the  top  of  the  head,  to  make  them  swallow  it. 
A.  man  once  came  to  him,  of  whom  he  said  he 
was  suspicious  :  he  gave  him  two  potions  of  salts, 
and  fastened  him  in  the  stocks  for  the  night.  His 
medicine  soon  began  to  operate  ;  and  there  he  lay 
in  all  his  filth  till  he  was  taken  out  the  vext  day. 

One  day,  Mr.  Swan  beat  a  slave  severely,  for 
alleged  carelessness  in  letting  a  boat  get  adrift. 
The  slave  was  told  to  secure  the  boat :  whether 
he  took  sufficient  means  for  this  purpose  I  do  not 
know  ;  he  was  not  allowed  to  make  any  defence. 
Mr.  Swan  called  him  up,  and  asked  wh^-  he  did 
not  secure  the  boat :  he  pulled  off  his  hat  and  be- 
gan to  tell  his  story.  Swan  told  him  he  was  a 
damned  liar,  and  commenced  beating  him  over 
the  head  with  a  hickory  cane,  and  the  slave  re- 
treated backwards ;  Swan  followed  him  about 
two  rods,  threshing  him  over  the  head  with  the 
hickory  as  he  went. 

As  I  was  one  day  standing  near  some  slaves 
who  were  threshing,  the  driver,  thinking  one  of 
the  women  did  not  use  her  flail  quick  enough, 
struck  her  over  the  head  :  the  end  of  the  whip 
hit  her  in  the  ej'e.  I  thought  at  the  time  he  had 
put  it  out ;  but,  after  poulticing  and  doctoring  for 
some  days,  she  recovered.  Speaking  to  him  about 
it,  he  said  that  he  once  struck  a  slave  so  as  to  put 
one  of  her  eyes  entirely  out. 

A  patrol  is  kept  upon  each  estate,  and  every 
slave  found  off  the  plantation  without  a  pass  is 
whipped  on  the  spot.  I  knew  a  slave  who  started 
without  a  pass,  one  night,  for  a  neighboring 
plantation,  to  see  his  wife  :  he  was  caught,  tied 
to  a  tree,  and  flogged.  He  stated  his  business  to 
the  patrol,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  him, 
but  all  to  no  purpose.  I  spoke  to  the  patrol  about 
it  afterwards  :  he  said  he  knew  the  negro,  that 
he  was  a  very  clever  fellow,  but  he  had  to  whip 
him  ;  for,  if  he  let  him  pass,  he  must  another,  &lc. 
He  stated  that  he  had  sometimes  caught  and  flog, 
ged  four  in  a  night. 

In  conversation  with  Mr.  Swan  about  runaway 
slaves,  he  stated  to  me  the  following  fact : — A 
slave,  by  the  name  of  Luke,  was  owned  in  Wil- 
mington ;  he  was  sold  to  a  speculator  and  carried 
to  Georgia.  After  an  absence  of  about  two 
months  the  slave  returned  ;  he  watched  an  oppor- 
tunity to  enter  his  old  master's  house  when  the 
family  were  absent,  no  one  being  at  home  but  a 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Caulkins. 


15 


young  waiting  man.  Luke  went  to  the  room 
where  his  master  kept  his  arms ;  took  his  gun, 
with  some  ammunition,  and  went  into  the  woods. 
On  the  return  of  his  master,  the  waiting  man  told 
him  what  had  been  done  :  this  threw  him  into  a 
violent  passion  ;  he  swore  he  would  kill  Luke,  or 
lose  his  own  life.  He  loaded  another  gun,  took 
two  men,  and  made  search,  but  could  not  find 
him  :  he  then  advertised  him,  offering  a  large  re- 
ward if  delivered  to  him  or  lodged  in  jail.  His 
neighbors,  however,  advised  him  to  offer  a  reward 
of  two  hundred  dollars  for  him  dead  or  alive,  which 
he  did.  Nothing  however  was  heard  of  him  for 
some  months.  Mr.  Swan  said,  one  of  his  slaves 
ran  away,  and  was  gone  eight  or  ten  weeks  ;  on 
his  return  he  said  he  had  found  Luke,  and  that 
he  had  a  rifle,  two  pistols,  and  a  sword. 

I  left  the  plantation  in  the  spring,  and  returned 
to  the  north  ;  when  I  went  out  again,  the  next 
fall,  I  asked  Mr.  Swan  if  any  thing  had  been 
heard  of  Luke  ;  he  said  he  was  shot,  and  related 
to  me  the  manner  of  his  death,  as  follows  : — Luke 
went  to  one  of  the  plantations,  and  entered  a  hut 
for  something  to  eat.  Being  fatigued,  he  sat  down 
and  fell  asleep.  There  was  only  a  woman  in  the 
hut  at  the  time  :  as  soon  as  she  fomid  he  was 
asleep,  she  ran  and  told  her  master,  who  took  his 
rifle,  and  called  two  white  men  on  another  planta- 
tion :  the  three,  with  their  rifles,  then  went  to  the 
hut,  and  posted  themselves  in  different  positions, 
so  that  they  could  watch  the  door.  When  Luke 
waked  up  he  went  to  the  door  to  look  out,  and 
saw  them  with  their  rifles,  he  stepped  back  and 
raised  his  gun  to  his  face.  They  called  to  him 
to  surrender ;  and  stated  that  they  had  him  in 
their  power,  and  said  he  had  better  give  up.  He 
said  he  would  not ;  and  if  they  tried  to  take  him, 
he  would  kill  one  of  them  ;  for,  if  he  gave  up,  he 
knew  they  would  kill  him,  and  he  was  determined 
to  sell  his  life  as  dear  as  he  could.  They  told 
him,  if  he  should  shoot  one  of  them,  the  other 
two  would  certainly  kill  him  :  he  replied,  he  was 
determined  not  to  give  up,  and  kept  his  gun  mov- 
ing from  one  to  the  other  ;  and  while  his  rifle  was 
turned  toward  one,  another,  standing  in  a  difier- 
ent  direction,  shot  him  through  the  head,  and  he 
fell  lifeless  to  the  ground. 

There  was  another  slave  shot  while  I  was 
there  ;  this  man  had  run  away,  and  had  been 
living  in  the  woods  a  long  time,  and  it  was  not 
known  where  he  was,  till  one  day  he  was  dis- 
covered by  two  men,  who  went  on  the  large 
island  near  Belvidcre  to  hunt  turkeys  ;  they  shot 
him  and  carried  his  head  home. 

It  is  common  to  keep  dogs  on  the  plantations, 
to  pursue  and  catch  runaway  slaves.  I  was 
once  bitten  by  one  of  them.  I  went  to  the 
overseer's  house,  the  dog  lay  in  the  piazza,  as 
soon  as  I  put  my  foot  upon  the  floor,  he  sprang 
and  bit  me  just  above  the  knee,  but  not  severely  ; 
he  tore  my  pantaloons  badly.  The  overseer 
apologized  for  his  dog,  saying  he  never  knew 
him  to  bite  a  white  man  before.  He  said  he 
once  had  a  dog,  when  he  hved  on  another  planta- 
tion, that  was  very  useful  to  him  in  hunting  run- 
away negroes.  He  said  that  a  slave  on  the 
plantation  once  ran  away  ;  as  soon  as  he  found 
the  course  he  took,  he  put  the  dog  on  the  track, 
and  he  soon  came  so  close  upon  him  that  the  man 


had  to  climb  a  tree,  he  followed  with  his  gun, 
and  brought  the  slave  home. 

The  slaves  have  a  great  dread  of  being  sold 
and  carried  south.  It  is  generally  said,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  of  its  truth,  that  they  are  much 
worse  treated  farther  south. 

The  following  are  a  few  among  the  many  facts 
related  to  me  while  I  lived  among  the  slavehold- 
er. The  names  of  the  planters  and  plantations, 
I  shall  not  give,  as  they  did  not  come  under  my 
own  observation.  I  however  place  the  fullest 
confidence  in  their  truth. 

A  planter  not  far  from  Mr.  Swan's  employed 
an  overseer  to  whom  he  paid  $400  a  year  ;  he  be- 
came  dissatisfied  with  him,  because  he  did  not 
drive  the  slaves  hard  enough,  and  get  more  work 
out  of  them.  He  therefore  sent  to  South 
Carolina,  or  Georgia,  and  got  a  man  to  whom  he 
paid  I  believe  $800  a  year.  He  proved  to  be  a 
cruel  fellow,  and  drove  the  slaves  almost  to 
death.  There  was  a  slave  on  this  plantation, 
who  had  repeatedly  run  away,  and  had  been 
severely  flogged  every  time.  The  last  time  he 
was  caught,  a  hole  was  dug  in  the  ground, 
and  he  buried  up  to  the  chin,  his  arms  being 
secured  down  by  his  sides.  He  was  kept  in  this 
situation  four  or  five  days. 

The  following  was  told  me  by  an  intimate 
friend ;  it  took  place  on  a  plantation  containing 
about  one  hundred  slaves.  One  day  the  owner 
ordered  the  women  into  the  barn,  he  then  went 
in  among  them,  whip  in  hand,  and  told  them  he 
meant  to  flog  them  all  to  death ;  they  began  immedi- 
ately to  cry  out  "  What  have  I  done  Massa  ?" 
What  have  I  done  Massa  ?"  He  replied  ;  "  D — n 
you,  I  wiU  let  you  know  what  you  have  done, 
you  don't  breed,  I  haven't  had  a  young  one  from 
one  of  you  for  several  months."  They  told  him 
they  could  not  breed  while  they  had  to  work  in 
the  rice  ditches.  (The  rice  grounds  are  low  and 
marshy,  and  have  to  be  drained,  and  while  dig- 
ging or  clearing  the  ditches,  the  women  had  to 
work  in  mud  and  water  from  one  to  two  feet  in 
depth  ;  they  were  obliged  to  draw  up  and  secure 
their  frocks  about  their  waist,  to  keep  them  out 
of  the  water,  in  this  manner  they  frequently  had 
to  work  from  daylight  in  the  morning  till  it  was 
so  dark  they  could  see  no  longer.)  After  swear- 
ing and  threatening  for  some  time,  he  told  them  to 
tell  the  overseer's  wife,  when  they  got  in  that  way, 
and  he  would  put  them  upon  the  land  to  work. 

This  same  planter  had  a  female  slave  who  was 
a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church  ;  for  a  slave 
she  was  intelligent  and  conscientious.  He  pro- 
posed a  criminal  intercourse  with  her.  She  would 
not  comply.  He  left  her  and  sent  for  the  over- 
seer, and  told  him  to  have  her  flogged.  It  was 
done.  Not  long  after,  he  renewed  his  proposal. 
She  again  refused.  She  was  again  whipped. 
He  then  told  her  why  she  had  been  twice  flogged, 
and  told  her  he  intended  to  whip  her  till  she 
should  yield.  The  girl,  seeing  that  her  case 
was  hopeless,  her  back  smarting  with  the  scourg- 
ing she  had  received,  and  dreading  a  repetition, 
gave  herself  up  to  be  the  victim  of  his  brutal  lusts. 

One  of  the  slaves  on  another  plantation,  gave 
birth  to  a  child  which  lived  but  two  or  three 
weeks.  After  its  death  the  planter  called  the 
woman  to  him,  and  asked  her  how  she  came  to 


16 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Caulkins. 


let  the  child  die  ;  said  it  was  all  owing  to  her 
carelessness,  and  that  he  meant  to  flog  her  for  it. 
She  told,  him  with  all  the  feeling  of  a  mother, 
the  circumstances  of  its  death.  But  her  story 
availed  her  nothing  against  the  savage  brutality 
of  her  master.  She  was  severely  whipped. 
A  healthy  child  four  months  old  was  then  consid- 
ered  worlhSlOO  in  North  Carolina. 

The  foregoing  facts  were  related  to  me  by 
white  persons  of  character  and  respectability. 
The  following  fact  was  related  to  me  on  a  plan- 
tation where  I  have  spent  considerable  time 
and  where  the  punishment  was  inflicted.  I 
have  no  doubt  of  its  truth.  A  slave  ran  away 
from  his  master,  and  got  as  far  as  Newbern. 
He  took  provisions  that  lasted  him  a  week  ;  but 
having  eaten  all,  he  went  to  a  house  to  get  some- 
thing to  satisfy  his  hunger.  A  white  man  sus- 
pecting him  to  be  a  runaway,  demanded  his  pass: 
as  he  had  none  he  was  seized  and  put  in  New- 
bern jail.  He  was  there  advertised,  his  descrip- 
tion given,  &c.  His  master  saw  the  advertise- 
ment and  sent  for  him  ;  when  he  was  brought 
back,  his  wrists  were  tied  together  and  drawn  over 
his  knees.  A  stick  was  then  passed  over  his 
arms  and  under  his  knees,  and  he  secured  in  this 
manner,  his  trowsers  were  then  stripped  down, 
and  he  turned  over  on  his  side,  and  severely 
beaten  with  the  paddle,  then  turned  over  and 
severely  beaten  on  the  other  side,  and  then  tm-n- 
ed  back  again,  and  tortured  by  another  bruising 
and  beating.  He  was  afterwards  kept  in  the 
stocks  a  week,  and  whipped  every  morning. 

To  show  the  disgusting  pollutions  of  slavery, 
and  how  it  covers  with  moral  filth  every  thing  it 
touches,  I  will  state  two  or  three  facts,  which  I 
have  on  sach  evidence  I  cannot  doubt  their  truth. 
A  planter  offered  a  white  man  of  my  acqaintance 
twenty  dollars  for  every  one  of  his  female  slaves, 
whom  he  would  get  in  the  family  way.  This 
offer  was  no  doubt  made  for  the  purpose  of  im- 
proving the  stock,  on  the  same  principle  that 
farmers  endeavour  to  improve  their  cattle  by 
crossing  the  breed. 

Slaves  belonging  to  merchants  and  others  in 
the  city,  often  hire  their  own  time,  for  which 
they  pay  various  prices  per  week  or  month,  ac- 
cording to  the  capacity  of  the  slave.  The  fe- 
males who  thus  hire  their  time,  pursue  various 
modes  to  procure  the  money  ;  their  masters  mak- 
ing no  inquiry  how  they  get  it,  provided  the 
money  comes.  If  it  is  not  regularly  paid  they 
are  flogged.  Some  take  in  washing,  some  cook 
on  board  vessels,  pick  oakum,  sell  peanuts,  &c., 
while  others,  younger  and  more  comely,  often 
resort  to  the  vilest  pursuits.  I  knew  a  man  from 
the  north  who,  though  married  to  a  respectable 
southern  woman,  kept  two  of  these  mulatto  girls 
in  an  upper  room  at  liis  store ;  his  wife  told  some 
of  her  friends  that  he  had  not  lodged  at  home 
for  two  weeks  together,  I  have  seen  these  two 
kept  misftes,  as  they  are  there  called,  at  his  store  ; 
he  was  afterwards  stabbed  in  an  attempt  to  ar- 
rest a  runaway  slave,  and  died  in  about  ten 
days. 

The  clergy  at  the  north  cringe  beneath  the 
corrupting  influence  of  slavery,  and  their  moral 
courage  is  borne  down  by  it.  Not  the  hypocriti- 
cal and  uni)rincipled  aloi)'>,  l)'-'  'ven  such  as  can 
hardly  be  supposed  to  be  d'sl;'.  ■••■  of  sincerity. 


Going  one  motning  to  the  Baptist  Sunday 
school,  in  Wilmington,  in  which  I  was  engaged, 
I  fell  in  with  the  Rev.  Thomas  P.  Hunt,  who 
was  going  to  the  Presbyterian  school.  I  asked 
him  how  he  could  bear  to  see  the  little  negro 
children  beating  their  hoops,  hallooing,  and  run- 
ning about  the  streets,  as  we  then  saw  them, 
their  moral  condition  entirely  neglected,  while 
the  whites  were  so  carefully  gathered  into  the 
schools.  His  reply  was  substantially  this  : — "  I 
can't  bear  it,  Mr.  Caulkins.  I  feel  as  deeply  as  any 
one  canon  this  subject,  but  what  can  I  do  ?     My 

HANDS    ARE    TIED." 

Now,  if  Mr.  Hunt  was  guilty  of  neglecting  his 
dutj^,  as  a  servant  of  Him  who  never  failed  to  re- 
buke sin  in  high  places,  what  shall  be  said  of 
those  clergymen  at  the  north,  where  the  power 
that  closed  his  mouth  is  comparatively  unfelt, 
who  refuse  to  tell  their  people  how  God  abhors 
oppression,  and  who  seldom  open  their  mouths  on 
this  subject,  but  to  denounce  the  friends  of  eman. 
cipation,  thus  giving  the  strongest  support  to  the" 
accursed  system  of  slavery.  I  believe  Mr.  Hunt 
has  since  become  an  agent  of  the  Temperance 
Society. 

In  stating  the  foregoing  facts,  my  object  has 
been  to  show  the  practical  workings  of  the  sys- 
tem  of  slavery,  and  if  possible  to  correct  the  mis- 
apprehension on  this  subject,  so  common  at  the 
north.  In  doing  this  I  am  not  at  war  with  slave- 
holders. No,  my  soul  is  moved  for  them  as  well 
as  for  the  poor  slaves.  May  God  send  them  re- 
pentance to  the  acknowledgmeni  of  the  truth  ! 
Principle,  on  a  subject  of  this  nature,  is  dearer  to 
me  than  the  applause  of  men,  and  should  not  be 
sacrificed  on  any  subject,  even  though  the  ties  ot 
friendship  may  be  broken.  We  have  loo  long 
been  silent  on  this  subject,  the  slave  has  been  too 
much  considered,  by  our  northern  states,  as  being 
kept  by  necessity  in  his  present  condition. — Were 
we  to  ask,  in  the  language  of  Pilate,  "  what  evil 
have  they  done" — we  may  search  their  history, 
we  cannot  find  that  they  have  taken  up  arms 
against  our  government,  nor  insulted  us  as  a  na- 
tion— that  they  are  thus  compelled  to  drag  out  a 
life  in  chains  !  subjected  to  the  most  terrible  inflic- 
tions if  in  any  way  they  manifest  a  v/isli  to  be 
released. — Let  us  reverse  the  question.  What  evil 
has  been  done  to  them  by  those  who  call  them. 
selves  masters?  First  let  us  look  at  their  per- 
sons,  "  neither  clothed  nor  naked" — I  have  seen 
instances  where  this  phrase  would  not  apply  to 
boys  and  girls,  and  that  too  in  winter.  I  knew 
one  young  man  seventeen  years  of  age,  by  the 
name  of  Dave,  on  Mr.  J.  Swan's  jjlantation, 
worked  day  after  day  in  the  rice  machine  as  nak. 
cd  as  when  he  was  born.  The  reason  of  his 
being  so,  his  master  said  in  my  hearing,  was,  that 
he  could  not  keep  clothes  on  him — he  would  get 
into  the  fire  and  burn  them  off". 

Follow  them  next  to  their  huts  ;  some  with  and 
some  without  floors : — Go  at  night,  view  their 
means  of  lodging,  see  tlicm  lying  on  benches, 
some  on  the  floor  or  groimd,  some  sitting  on  stools, 
dozing  away  the  night ; — others,  of  younger  age, 
with  a  bare  blanket  wrapped  about  them  ;  and 
one  or  two  lying  in  the  ashes.  These  things  J  have 
often  seen  with  my  own  eyes. 

Examine  their  means  of  subsistence,  which 
consists   generally   of  seven   quarts  of  meal  or 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Horace  Moulton. 


17 


eight  quarts  of  small  rice  for  one  week;  then 
follow  them  to  their  work,  with  driver  and  over- 
seer pushing  them  to  the  utmost  of  liieir  strength, 
by  threatening  and  whipping. 

If  they  are  sick  from  fatigue  and  exposure,  go 
to  their  huts,  as  I  have  often  been,  and  see  them 
groaning  under  a  burning  fever  or  pleurisy,  lying 
on  some  straw,  their  feet  to  the  fire  with  barely  a 
blanket  to  cover  them  ;  or  on  some  boards  nailed 
together  in  form  of  a  bedstead. 

And  after  seeing  all  this,  and  hearing  them 
tell  of  their  sufferings,  need  I  ask,  is  there  any 
evil  connected  with  their  condition  ?  and  if  so  ; 
upon  whom  is  it  to  be  charged  ?  I  answer  for  my- 
self, and  the  reader  can  do  the  same.  Our  govern- 
ment stands  first  chargeable  for  allowing  slavery 
to  exist,  under  its  own  jurisdiction.  Second,  the 
states  for  enacting  laws  to  secure  their  victim. 
Third,  the  slaveholder  for  carrying  out  such 
enactments,  in  horrid  form  enough  to  chill  the 
blood.  Fourth,  every  person  who  knave's  what 
slavery  is,  and  does  not  raise  his  voice  against 
this  crying  sin,  but  by  silence  gives  consent  to  its 
continuance,  is  chargeable  with  guilt  in  the  sight 
of  God.  "  The  blood  of  Zacharias  who  was 
skin  between  the  temple  and  altar,"  says  Christ, 

"  WILL  I  REQUIRE  OF  THIS  GENERATION." 

Look  at  the  slave,  his  condition  but  little,  if  at 
all,  better  than  that  of  the  brute  ;  chained  down 
by  the  law,  and  the  will  of  his  master  ;  and  every 
avenue  closed  against  rehef ;  and  the  names  of 
those  who  plead  for  him,  cast  out  as  evil ; — must 
not  humanity  let  its  voice  be  heard,  and  tell  Israel 
their  transgressions  and  Judah  their  sins  ? 

May  God  look  upon  their  afflictions,  and  deliver 
them  from  their  cruel  task-masters  !     I  verily  be- 


lieve he  will,  if  there  be  any  efBcacy  in  prayer.  I 
have  been  to  their  prayer  meetings  and  with  them 
offered  prayer  in  their  behalf.  I  have  heard  some 
of  them  in  their  huts  before  d£^-light  praying  in 
their  simple  broken  language,  telling  their  hea- 
venly  Father  of  their  trials  in  the  following  and 
similar  language. 

"  Fader  in  heaven,  look  upon  de  poor  slave, 
dat  have  to  work  all  de  day  long,  dat  cant  have 
de  time  to  pray  only  in  de  night,  and  den  massa 
mus  not  know  it.*  Fader,  have  mercy  on  massa 
and  missus.  Fader,  when  shall  poor  slave  get 
tlirough  the  world  !  when  will  death  come,  and  de 
poor  slave  go  to  heaven  ;"  and  in  their  meetings 
they  frequently  add,  "  Fader,  bless  de  white  man 
dat  come  to  hear  de  slave  pray,  bless  his  family," 
and  so  on.  They  uniformly  begin  their  meet- 
ings by  singing  the  following — 

"  And  Hre  we  yet  alive 

To  see  each  other's  face,"  &c. 

Is  the  ear  of  the  Most  High  deaf  to  the  prayer 
of  the  slave  ?  I  do  firmly  believe  that  their  de- 
liverance will  come,  and  that  the  prayer  of  this 
poor  afflicted  people  will  be  answered. 

Emancipation  would  be  safe.  I  have  had 
eleven  winters  to  learn  the  disposition  of  the 
slaves,  and  am  satisfied  that  they  would  peacea- 
bly and  cheerfully  work  for  pay.  Give  them 
education,  equal  and  just  laws,  and  they  will  be- 
come a  most  interesting  people.  Oh,  let  a  cry 
be  raised  which  shall  awaken  the  conscience  of 
this  guilty  nation,  to  demand  for  the  slaves  im- 
mediate and  unconditional  emancipation. 

Neiiemiah  Caulkins. 

*  At  this  time  there  was  some  fear  of  insurrection  anV 
the  slaves  were  forbidden  to  hold  niKetiiigs. 


NARRATIVE  AND   TESTIMONY  OF  REV.  HORACE  MOULTON. 


Mr.  Moulton  is  an  esteemed  minister  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  Marlborough, 
Mass.  He  spent  five  years  in  Georgia,  between 
1817  and  1824.  The  following  communication 
has  been  recently  received  from  him. 

Marlborough,  Mass.,  Feb.  18, 1839. 
Dear  Brother — 

Yours  of  Feb.  2d,  requesting  me  to  write  out  a 
few  facts  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  as  it  exists 
at  the  south,  has  come  to  hand.  I  hasten  to 
complj"-  with  your  request.  Were  it  not,  how- 
ever, for  the  claims  of  those  "  who  are  drawn 
unto  death,"  and  the  responsibility  resting  upon 
me,  in  consequence  of  this  request,  I  should  for- 
ever hold  my  peace.  For  I  well  know  that  I 
shall  bring  upon  myself  a  flood  of  persecution, 
for  attempting  to  speak  out  for  the  dumb.  But 
I  am  willing  to  be  set  at  nought  by  men,  if  I 
can  be  the  means  of  promoting  the  welfare  of 
tlie  oppressed  of  our  land.  I  shall  not  relate 
many  particular  cases  of  cruelty,  though  I 
might  a  great  number;  but  shall  give  some 
general  information  as  to  their  mode  of  treat- 
ment, their  food,  clothing,  dwellings,  depriva- 
tions, &c. 

Let  me  say,  in  the  first  place,  that  I  spent 
nearly  five  years  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  and  in 


its  vicinity,  between  the  years  1817  and  1824. 
My  object  in  going  to  the  south,  was  to  engage 
in  making  and  burning  brick  ;  but  not  immedi. 
ately  succeeding,  I  engaged  in  no  business  of 
much  profit  until  late  in  the  winter,  when  I  took 
charge  of  a  set  of  hands  and  went  to  work. 
During  my  leisure,  however,  I  was  an  observer, 
at  the  auctions,  upon  the  plantations,  and  in  al- 
most every  department  of  business.  The  next 
year,  during  the  cold  months,  I  had  several  two- 
horse  teams  under  my  care,  with  which  we  used 
to  haul  brick,  boards,  and  other  articles  from  the 
wharf  into  the  city,  and  cotton,  rice,  corn,  and 
wood  from  the  country.  This  gave  me  an  ex- 
tensive acquaintance  with  merchants,  mechanics 
and  planters.  I  had  slaves  under  my  control 
some  portions  of  every  year  when  at  the  south. 
All  the  brick-yards,  except  one,  on  which  I  was 
engaged,  were  connected  either  with  a  corn  field, 
potatoe  patch,  rice  field,  cotton  field,  tan-works, 
or  with  a  wood  lot.  My  business,  usually,  was 
to  take  charge  of  the  brick-making  department. 
At  those  jobs  I  have  sometimes  taken  in  charge 
both  the  field  and  brick-yard  hands.  I  have 
been  on  the  plantations  in  South  Carolina,  but 
have  never  been  an  overseer  of  slaves  in  that 
state,  as  has  been  said  in  the  public  papers. 
I  think  the  above  facts  and  explanations  are 


18 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Horace  Moulton. 


necessary  to  be  connected  with  the  account  I 
may  give  of  slavery,  that  the  reader  may  have 
some  knowledge  of  ray  acquaintance  with 
practical  slavery :  for  many  mechanics  and 
merchants  who  go  to  the  South,  and  stay  there 
for  years,  know  but  little  of  the  dark  side  of 
slavery.  My  account  of  slavery  will  apply  to 
field  hands,  who  compose  much  the  largest  por- 
tion of  the  black  population,  (probably  nine- 
tenths,)  and  not  to  those  who  are  kept  for  kitchen 
maids,  nurses,  waiters,  &c.,  about  the  houses  of 
the  planters  and  public  hotels,  where  persons 
from  the  north  obtain  most  of  their  knowledge 
of  the  evils  of  slavery.  I  will  now  proceed  to 
take  up  specific  points. 

THE    LABOR    OF    THE    SLAVES. 

Males  and  females  work  together  promiscuously 
on  all  the  plantations.  On  many  plantations  tasks 
are  given  themt  The  best  working  hands  can 
have  some  leisure  time ;  but  the  feeble  and  unskil- 
ful ones,  together  with  slender  females,  have  in- 
deed a  hard  time  of  it,  and  very  often  answer  for 
non-performance  of  tasks  at  the  whipping-posts. 
None  who  worked  with  me  had  tasks  at  any 
time.  The  rule  was  to  work  them  from  sun  to 
sun.  But  when  I  was  burning  brick,  they  were 
obliged  to  take  turns,  and  sit  up  all  night  about 
every  other  night,  and  work  all  day.  On  one 
plantation,  where  I  spent  a  few  weeks,  the  slaves 
were  called  up  to  work  long  before  daylight, 
when  business  pressed,  and  worked  until  late  at 
night ;  and  sometimes  some  of  them  all  night. 
A  large  portion  of  the  slaves  are  owned  by  mas- 
ters who  keep  them  on  purpose  to  hire  out — and 
they  usually  let  them  to  those  who  will  give  the 
highest  wages  for  them,  irrespective  of  their 
mode  of  treatment ;  and  those  who  hire  them, 
will  of  course  try  to  get  the  greatest  possible 
amount  of  work  performed;  with  the  least  possi- 
ble expense.  Women  are  seen  bringing  their 
infants  into  the  field  to  their  work,  and  leading 
others  who  are  not  old  enough  to  stay  at  the 
cabins  with  safety.  When  they  get  there,  they 
must  set  them  down  in  the  dirt,  and  go  to  work. 
Sometimes  they  are  left  to  cry  until  they  fall 
alseep.  Others  are  left  at  home,  shut  up  in  their 
huts.  Now,  is  it  not  barbarous,  that  the  mother, 
with  her  child  or  children  around  her,  half 
starved,  must  be  whipped  at  night  if  she  does  not 
perform  her  task  ?  But  so  it  is.  Some  who 
have  very  young  ones,  fix  a  little  sack,  and  place 
the  infants  on  their  backs,  and  work.  One 
reason,  I  presume  is,  that  they  will  not  cry  so 
much  when  they  can  hear  their  mother's  voice. 
Another  is,  the  mothers  fear  that  the  poison- 
ous vipers  and  snakes  will  bite  them.  Truly,  I 
never  knew  any  place  where  the  land  is  so  in- 
fested with  all  kinds  of  the  most  venomous 
snakes,  as  in  the  low  lands  round  about  Savan- 
nah. The  moccasin  snakes,  so  called,  and  water 
rattle-snakes — the  bites  of  both  of  which  are  as 
poisonous  as  our  upland  rattle-snakes  at  the 
north, — are  found  in  myriads  about  the  stag- 
nant waters  and  swamps  of  the  South.  The  fe- 
males, in  order  to  secure  their  infants  from  these 
poisonous  snakes,  do,  as  I  have  said,  often  work 
with  their  infants  on  their  backs.  Females  are 
sometimes  called  to  take  the  hardest  part  of  the 
work.     On  some  brick  yards  where  I  have  been, 


the  women  have  been  selected  as  the  moulders 
of  brick,  instead  of  the  men. 

II.    THE    FOOD    OF   THE    SLAVES. 

It  was  a  general  custom,  wherever  I  have  been, 
for  the  masters  to  give  each  of  his  slaves,  male 
and  female,  one  peck  of  corn  per  week  for  their 
food.  This  at  fifty  cents  per  bushel,  which  was 
all  that  it  was  worth  when  I  was  there,  would 
amount  to  twelve  and  a  half  cents  per  week  for 
board  per  head. 

It  cost  me  upon  an  average,  when  at  the  south, 
one  dollar  per  day  for  board.  The  price  of  four- 
teen bushels  of  corn  per  week.  This  would  make 
my  board  equal  in  amount  to  the  board  oi  forty.six 
slaves  !  This  is  all  that  good  or  bad  masters  al- 
low their  slaves  round  about  Savannah  on  the 
plantations.  One  peek  of  gourd-seed  com  is  to 
be  measured  out  to  each  slave  once  every  week. 
One  man  with  whom  I  labored,  however,  being 
desirous  to  get  all  the  work  out  of  his  hands 
he  could,  before  I  left,  (about  fifty  in  number,) 
bouglit  for  them  every  week,  or  twice  a  week,  a 
beef's  head  from  market.  With  this,  they  made  a 
soup  in  a  large  iron  kettle,  around  which  the 
han-is  came  at  meal-time,  and  dipping  out  the 
soup,  would  mix  it  with  their  hommony,  and  eat  it 
as  though  it  were  a  feast.  This  man  permitted  his 
slavcsto  eat  twice  a  day  while  I  was  doing  a  job  for 
him.  He  promised  me  a  beaver  hat  and  as  good  a 
suit  of  clothes  as  could  be  bought  in  the  city,  if  I 
would  accomplish  so  much  for  him  before  I  return- 
ed to  the  north  ;  giving  me  the  entire  control  over 
his  slaves.  Thus  you  may  see  the  temptations 
overseers  sometimes  have,  to  get  all  the  work 
they  can  out  of  the  poor  slaves.  The  above  is  an 
exception  to  the  general  rule  of  feeding.  For  in 
all  other  places  where  I  worked  and  visited ;  the 
slaves  had  nothing  from  their  masters  but  the  corn, 
or  its  equivalent  in  potatoes  or  rice,  and  to  this, 
they  were  not  permitted  to  come  but  once  a  day. 
The  custom  was  to  blow  the  horn  early  in  the 
morning,  as  a  signal  for  the  hands  to  lise  and  go 
to  work,  when  commenced  ;  they  continued  work 
until  about  eleven  o'clock,  A.  M.,  when,  at  the 
signal,  all  hands  left  off,  and  went  into  their  huts, 
made  their  fires,  made  their  corn-meal  into  hom- 
mony or  cake,  ate  it,  and  went  to  work  again  at 
the  signal  of  the  horn,  and  worked  until  night,  or 
until  their  tasks  were  done.  Some  cooked  their 
breakfast  in  the  field  while  at  work.  Each  slave 
must  grind  his  own  corn  in  a  hand-mill  after  he 
has  done  his  work  at  night.  There  is  generally 
one  hand-mill  on  every  plantation  for  the  use  of 
the  slaves. 

Some  of  the  planters  have  no  corn,  others  often 
get  out.  The  substitute  for  it  is,  the  equivalent  of 
one  peck  of  corn  either  in  rice  or  sweet  potatoes  ; 
neither  of  which  is  as  good  for  the  slaves  as  com. 
They  complain  more  of  being  faint,  when  fed  on 
rice  or  potatoes,  than  when  fed  on  corn.  I  was 
with  one  man  a  few  weeks  who  gave  me  his 
hands  to  do  a  job  of  work,  and  to  save  time  one 
cooked  for  all  the  rest.  The  following  coiu-se  was 
taken, — Two  crotched  sticks  were  driven  down  at 
one  end  of  the  yard,  and  a  small  {)ole  being  laid 
on  the  crotches,  they  swung  a  large  iron  kettle  on 
the  middle  of  the  pole ;  then  made  up  a  firo 
under  the  kettle  and  boiled  the  hommony  ;  when 
ready,  the  hands  were  called  around  this  kettle 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Horace  Moulton. 


19 


with  their  wooden  plates  and  spoons.  They  dip- 
ped out  and  ate  standing  around  the  kettle,  or  sit- 
ting upon  the  ground,  as  best  suited  their  conve- 
nience. When  they  had  potatoes  they  took  them 
But  with  their  hands,  and  ate  them.  As  soon  as  it 
was  thought  they  had  had  sufficient  time  to  swal- 
low their  food  they  were  called  to  their  work  again. 
This  was  the  only  meal  they  ate  through  the  day. 
Now  think  of  the  little,  almost  naked  and  half- 
starved  children,  nibbling  upon  a  piece  of  cold 
Indian  cake,  or  a  potato  !  Think  of  the  poor  fe- 
male, just  ready  to  be  confined,  without  any  thing 
that  can  be  called  convenient  or  comfortable ! 
Think  of  the  old  toil-worn  father  and  mother,  with- 
out  any  thing  to  eat  but  the  coarsest  of  food,  and 
not  half  enough  of  that !  then  think  of  home. 
When  sick,  their  physicians  are  their  masters  and 
overseers,  in  most  cases,  whose  skill  consists  in 
bleeding  and  in  administering  large  potions  of  Ep- 
som salts,  when  the  whip  and  cursing  will  not 
start  them  from  their  cabins. 

IXI.  HOUSES. 

The  huts  of  the  slaves  are  mostly  of  the  poor- 
est kind.  Tliey  are  not  as  good  as  those  tempo- 
rary shanties  which  are  thrown  up  beside  rail- 
roads. They  are  erected  with  posts  and  crotches, 
with  but  little  or  no  frame-work  about  them. 
They  have  no  stoves  or  chimneys;  some  of  them 
have  something  like  a  fireplace  at  one  end,  and  a 
board  or  two  ofi  at  that  side,  or  on  the  roof,  to  let 
off  the  smoke.  Others  have  nothing  like  a  fire- 
place in  them  ;  in  these  the  fire  is  sometimes  made 
in  the  middle  of  the  hut.  These  buildings  have 
but  one  apartment  in  them ;  the  places  where 
they  pass  in  and  out,  serve  both  for  doors  and 
windows ;  the  sides  and  roofs  are  covered  with 
coarse,  and  in  many  instances  with  refuse  boards. 
In  warm  weather,  especially  in  the  spring,  the 
slaves  keep  up  a  smoke,  or  fire  and  smoke,  all 
night,  to  drive  away  the  gnats  and  musketoes, 
which  are  very  troublesome  in  all  the  low  country 
of  the  south ;  so  much  so  that  the  whites  sleep 
'ir.der  frames  with  nets  over  them,  knit  so  fine  that 
the  musketoes  cannot  fly  through  them. 

Some  of  the  slaves  have  rugs  to  cover  them 
in  the  coldest  weather,  but  I  should  think  more 
have  not.  During  driving  storms  they  frequently 
have  to  run  from  one  hut  to  another  for  shelter. 
In  the  coldest  weather,  where  they  can  get  wood 
or  stumps,  they  keep  up  fires  all  night  in  their 
huts,  and  lay  aroimd  them,  with  their  feet  to- 
wards the  blaze.  Men,  women  and  children  all 
lie  down  together,  in  most  instances.  There  may 
be  exceptions  to  the  above  statements  in  regard 
to  their  houses,  but  so  far  as  my  observations 
have  extended,  I  have  given  a  fair  description, 
and  I  have  been  on  a  large  number  of  planta- 
tions in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  up  and  down 
the  Savannah  river.  Their  huts  are  generally 
built  compactly  on  the  plantations,  forming  villa- 
ges of  huts,  their  size  proportioned  to  the  number 
of  slaves  on.  them.  In  these  miserable  huts  the 
poor  blacks  are  herded  at  night  like  swine,  without 
any  conveniences  of  bedsteads,  tables  or  chairs. 
O  misery  to  the  full !  to  see  the  aged  sire  beating 
oiF  the  swarms  of  gnats  and  musketoes  in  the 
warm  weather,  and  shivering  in  the  straw,  or 
bending  over  a  few  coals  in  the  winter,  clothed 
in  rags.     I  should  think  males  and  females,  both 


lie  down  at  night  with  their  working  clothes  on 
them.  God  alone  knows  how  much  the  poor 
slaves  suffer  for  the  want  of  convenient  houses 
to  secure  them  from  the  piercing  winds  and  howl- 
ing storms  of  winter,  especially  the  aged,  sick 
and  dying.  Although  it  is  much  warmer  there 
than  here,  yet  I  suffered  for  a  number  of  weeks 
in  the  winter,  almost  as  much  in  Georgia  as  I  do 
in  Massachusetts. 

IV.  CLOTHING. 

The  masters  [in  Georgia]  make  a  practice  of 
getting  two  suits  of  clothes  for  each  slave  per  year, 
a  thick  suit  for  winter,  and  a  thin  one  for  summer. 
They  provide  also  one  pair  of  northern  made  sale 
shoes  for  each  slave  in  winter.  These  shoes  usu- 
ally begin  to  rip  in  a  few  weeks.  The  negroes' 
mode  of  mending  them  is,  to  wire  them  together, 
in  many  instances.  Do  our  northern  shoemakers 
know  that  they  are  augmenting  the  sufferings  of 
the  poor  slaves  with  their  almost  good  for  nothing 
sale  shoes  ?  Inasmuch  as  it  is  done  unto  one  of 
those  poor  sufferers  it  is  done  unto  our  Saviour. 
The  above  practice  of  clothing  the  slave  is  cus. 
tomary  to  some  extent.  How  many,  however, 
fail  of  this,  God  only  knows.  The  children  and 
old  slaves  are,  I  should  think,  exceptions  to  the 
above  rule.  The  males  and  females  have  their 
suits  from  the  same  cloth  for  their  winter  dresses. 
These  winter  garments  appear  to  be  made  of  a 
mixture  of  cotton  and  wool,  very  coarse  and 
sleazy.  The  whole  suit  for  the  men  consists  of 
a  pair  of  pantaloons  and  a  short  sailor-jacket, 
tcithout  shirt,  vest,  hat,  stockings,  or  any  kind  of 
loose  garments .'  These,  if  worn  steadily  when 
at  work,  would  not  probably  last  more  than  one 
or  two  months  ;  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  saving 
them,  many  of  them  work,  especially  in  the  sum- 
mer, with  no  clothing  on  them  except  a  cloth 
tied  round  their  waist,  and  almost  all  with  nothing 
more  on  them  than  pantaloons,  and  these  fre- 
quently so  torn  that  they  do  not  serve  the  pur- 
poses of  common  decency.  The  women  have 
for  clothing  a  short  petticoat,  and  a  short  loose 
gown,  something  like  the  male's  sailor-jacket, 
without  any  under  garment,  stockings,  bonnets, 
hoods,  caps,  or  any  kind  of  over-clothes.  When 
at  work  in  wann  weather,  they  usually  strip  off 
the  loose  go\vn,  and  have  nothing  on  but  a  short 
petticoat  with  some  kind  of  covering  over  their 
breasts.  Many  children  may  be  seen  in  the  sum- 
mer  months  as  naked  as  they  came  into  the  world. 
I  think,  as  a  whole,  they  suffer  more  for  the  want 
of  comfortable  bed-clothes,  than  they  do  for  wear- 
ing apparel.  It  is  true,  that  some  by  begging  or 
buying,  have  more  clothes  than  above  described, 
but  the  masters  provide  them  with  no  more.  They 
are  miserable  objects  of  pity.  It  may  be  said  of 
many  of  them,  "  I  was  naked  and  ye  clothed  me 
not."  It  is  enouoh  to  melt  the  hardest  heart  to 
see  the  ragged  mothers  nursing  their  almost  nak- 
ed children,  witii  but  a  morsel  of  the  coarsest 
food  to  eat.  The  Southern  horses  and  dogs  have 
enough  to  eat  and  good  care  taken  of  them,  but 
Southern  negroes,  who  can  describe  their  misery  ? 

v.    PUNISHMENTS. 

Tlie  ordinary  mode  of  punishing  the  slaves  is 
both  cruel  and  barbarous.  The  masters  seldom, 
if  ever,  try  to  govern  their  slaves  by  moral  influ* 


20 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Horace  Moulton. 


ence,  but  by  whipping,  kicking,  beating,  starving, 
branding,  cat-hauling,  loading  with  irons,  impris- 
oning, or  by  some  other  cruel  mode  of  torturing. 
They  often  boast  of  having  invented  some  new 
mode  of  tortiu-e,  by  which  they  have  "  tamed 
the  rascals."  What  is  called  a  moderate  flogging 
at  the  south  is  horribly  cruel.  Should  we  whip 
our  horses  for  any  oflfcnce  as  they  whip  their  slaves 
for  small  ofFcnees,  we  should  expose  ourselves  to 
the  penalty  of  the  law.  The  masters  whip  for  the 
smallest  offences,  such  as  not  performing  their 
tasks,  being  cauglit  by  the  guard  or  patrol  by 
night,  orfor  taking  any  thing  from  the  master's  yard 
v/ithout  leave.  For  these,  and  the  like  crimes, 
the  slaves  are  whipped  thirty-nine  lashes,  and 
sometimes  seventy  or  a  hundred,  on  the  bare  back. 
One  slave,  who  was  under  my  care,  was  whipped, 
I  think  one  hundred  lashes,  for  getting  a  small 
handful  of  wood  from  his  master's  yard  without 
leave.  I  heard  an  overseer  boasting  to  this  same 
master  that  he  gave  one  of  the  boys  sevcnt}'  lashes, 
for  not  doing  a  job  of  work  just  as  he  thought  it 
ought  to  be  done.  The  o%vner  of  the  slave  ap- 
peared to  be  pleased  that  the  overseer  had  been  so 
faithful.  The  apology  they  make  for  whipping 
so  cruellv  is,  that  it  is  to  frighten  the  rest  of  the 
gang.  The  m;isters  say,  that  what  we  call  an 
ordinary  flogging  will  not  subdue  the  slaves ; 
hence  the  most  cruel  and  barbarous  scourgings 
ever  witnessed  by  man  are  daily  and  hourly  in- 
flicted upon  the  naked  bodies  of  these  miserable 
bondmen  ;  not  by  masters  and  negro-drivers  only, 
but  by  the  constables  in  the  common  markets 
and  jailors  in  their  yards. 

When  the  slaves  are  whipped,  either  in  public 
or  private,  they  have  their  hands  fastened  by  the 
wrists,  with  a  rope  or  cord  prepared  for  the  pur- 
pose :  this  being  thrown  over  a  beam,  a  limb  of  a 
tree,  or  something  else,  the  culprit  is  drawn  up 
and  stretched  by  the  arms  as  high  as  possible, 
without  raising  his  feet  from  the  ground  or  floor  : 
and  sometimes  they  are  made  to  stand  on  tip-toe  ; 
then  the  feet  are  made  fast  to  something  prepared 
for  them.  In  this  distorted  posture  the  monster 
flies  at  them,  sometimes  in  great  rage,  with  his 
implements  of  torture,  and  cuts  on  with  all  his 
might,  over  the  shoulders,  under  the  arms,  and 
sometimes  over  the  head  and  ears,  or  on  parts  of 
the  body  where  he  can  inflict  the  greatest  torment. 
Occasionally  the  whipper,  especially  if  his  victim 
does  not  beg  enough  to  suit  him.  while  under  the 
lash,  will  fly  into  a  passion,  uttering  the  most  hor- 
rid  oaths ;  while  the  victim  of  his  rage  is  crying, 
at  every  stroke,  "  Lord  have  mercy  !  Lord  have 
mercy  !"  The  scenes  exhibited  at  the  whipping 
post  are  awfully  terrific  and  frightful  to  one  whose 
heart  has  not  turned  to  stone ;  I  never  could  look 
on  but  a  moment.  While  imder  the  lash,  the 
bleeding  victim  writhes  in  agony,  convulsed  with 
torture.  Thirty-nine  lashes  on  the  bare  back, 
which  tear  the  skin  at  almost  every  stroke,  is 
what  the  South  calls  a  very  moderate  punishment  ! 
Many  masters  whip  until  they  are  tired — until 
the  back  is  a  gore  of  blood — then  rest  upon  it : 
after  a  short  cessation,  get  up  and  go  at  it  again  ; 
and  after  liaving  satiated  their  revenge  in  the  blood 
of  their  victims,  they  sometimes  leave  them  tied, 
for  /lours  together,  bleeding  at  every  iDoiinfL — 
Sometimes,  after  being  whipppd,  they  arc  bathed 
with  a  brine  of  salt  and  water.     Now  and  then  a 


master,  but  more  frequentlj'  a  mistress  who  has 
no  husband,  will  send  them  to  jail  a  few  da3's. 
giving  orders  to  have  them  whipped,  so  manj 
lashes,  once  or  twice  a  day.  Sometimes,  aftei 
being  whipped,  some  have  been  shut  up  in  a  darli 
place  and  deprived  of  food,  in  order  to  increase 
their  torments  :  and  I  have  heard  of  some  who 
have,  in  such  circumstances,  died  of  their  wounds 
and  starvation. 

Such  scenes  of  horror  as  above  described  are  so 
common  in  Georgia  that  they  attract  no  atten- 
tion. To  threaten  them  with  death,  with  break- 
ing in  their  teeth  or  jaws,  or  cracking  their  heads, 
is  common  talk,  when  scolding  at  the  slaves. — 
Those  who  run  away  from  their  masters  and  are 
caught  again  generally  fare  the  worst.  They  are 
generally  lodged  in  jail,  with  instructions  from  the 
owner  to  have  them  cruelly  whipped.  Some  or- 
der the  constables  to  whip  them  pubhcly  in  the 
market.  Constables  at  the  south  are  generall}' 
savage,  brutal  men.  They  have  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  catching  and  whipping  negroes,  that 
they  are  as  fierce  as  tigers.  Slaves  who  are  ab- 
sent from  tlieir  yards,  or  plantations,  after  eight 
o'clock  P.  M.,  and  are  taken  by  the  guard  in  the 
cities,  or  by  the  patrols  in  the  country,  are,  if  not 
called  for  before  nine  o'clock  A.  M.  the  next  day, 
secured  in  prisons  ;  and  hardly  ever  escape,  until 
their  backs  arc  torn  up  by  the  cow-hide.  On 
plantations,  the  evenings  usually  present  scenes 
of  horror.  Those  slaves  against  whom  charges  are 
preferred  for  not  having  performed  their  tasks, 
and  for  various  faults,  must,  after  work-hours  at 
night,  undergo  their  torments.  I  have  often  heard 
the  sound  of  the  lash,  the  curses  of  the  whipper, 
and  the  cries  of  the  poor  negro  rending  the  air. 
late  in  the  evening,  and  long  before  day-light  in 
the  morning. 

It  is  very  common  for  masters  to  say  to  the 
overseers  or  drivers,  "  put  it  on  to  them,"  "  don't 
spare  tjiat  fellow,"  "  give  that  scoundrel  one  hun- 
dred lashes,"  &c.  Whipping  the  women  when 
in  delicate  circumstances,  as  they  sometimes  do, 
without  any  regard  to  their  entreaties  or  the  en- 
treaties  of  their  nearest  friends,  is  truly  barbarous. 
If  negroes  could  testify,  they  would  tell  you  ol 
instances  of  women  being  whipped  until  they 
hav^  miscarried  at  the  whipping-post.  I  heard 
of  such  things  at  the  south — they  are  undoubted, 
ly  facts.  Children  are  whipped  unmercifully  for 
the  smallest  offences,  and  that  before  their  mo- 
thers. A  large  proportion  of  the  blacks  liavc  their 
shoulders,  backs,  and  arms  all  scarred  up,  and 
not  a  few  of  them  have  had  their  heads  laid  open 
with  clubs,  stones,  and  brick-bats,  and  with  the 
butt-end  of  whips  and  carfes — some  have  had 
their  jaws  broken,  others  their  teeth  knocked  in  or 
out ;  while  others  have  had  their  ears  cropped 
and  the  sides  of  their  cheeks  gashed  out.  Some 
of  the  poor  creatures  have  lost  the  sight  of  one  of 
their  eyes  by  the  careless  blows  of  the  whipper, 
or  by  some  other  violence. 

Butpunishingof  slaves  as  above  described,  is  not 
the  onljr  mode  of  torture.  Sonie  tie  thorn  up  in 
a  very  imcasy  posture,  where  they  must  stand 
all  night,  and  they  will  then  work  them  hard  all 
day — that  is.  work  them  hard  all  day  and  tor- 
ment them  all  niglit.  Others  punish  by  fastening 
them  down  on  a  log,  or  something  else,  and 
strike  them  on  the  bare  skin  with  a  board  paddle 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Horace  Moulton. 


21 


full  of  holes.  This  breaks  the  skin,  I  should 
presume,  at  every  hole  where  it  comes  in 
contact  with  it.  Others,  when  other  modes  of 
punishment  will  not  subdue  them,  cat-haul  them 
— that  is,  take  a  cat  by  the  nape  of  the  neck  and 
tail,  or  by  the  hind  legs,  and  drag  the  claws 
across  the  back  until  satisfied.  This  kind  of  pun- 
ishment poisons  the  flesh  much  worse  than  the 
whip,  and  is  more  dreaded  by  the  slave.  Some 
are  branded  by  a  hot  iron,  others  have  their 
flesh  cut  out  in  large  gashes,  to  mark  them. 
Some  who  are  prone  to  run  away,  have  iron  fet- 
ters riveted  around  their  ancles,  sometimes  they 
are  put  only  on  one  foot,  and  are  dragged  on  the 
ground.  Others  have  on  large  iron  collars  or 
yokes  upon  their  necks,  or  clogs  riveted  upon 
their  wrists  or  ancles.  Some  have  bells  put  upon 
them,  hmig  upon  a  sort  of  frame  to  an  iron  collar. 
Some  masters  fly  into  a  rage  at  trifles  and  knock 
down  their  negroes  with  their  fists,  or  with  the 
first  thing  that  thoy  can  get  hold  of.  The  whip, 
lash-knots,  or  rawliide,  have  sometimes  by  a 
reckless  stroke  reached  round  to  the  front  of  the 
body  and  cut  through  to  the  bowels.  One  slave- 
holder with  whom  I  lived,  whipped  one  of  his 
slaves  one  day,  as  many,  I  should  think,  as  one 
hundred  lashes,  and  then  turned  the  butt-end 
and  went  to  beating  him  over  the  head  and  ears, 
and  truly  I  was  amazed  that  the  slave  was  not 
killed  on  the  spot.  Not  a  few  slaveholders  whip 
their  slaves  to  death,  and  then  say  that  they  died 
under  a  "  moderate  correction."  I  wonder  that 
ten  are  not  killed  where  one  is  !  Were  they  not 
much  hardier  than  the  whites  many  more  of 
them  must  die  than  do.  One  young  mulatto 
man,  with  whom  I  was  well  acquainted,  was 
killed  by  his  master  in  his  yard  with  impunity. 
I  boarded  at  the  same  time  near  the  place  where 
this  glaring  murder  was  committed,  and  knew 
the  master  well.  He  had  a  plantation,  on 
which  he  enacted,  almost  daily,  cruel  barbarities, 
some  of  them,  I  was  informed,  more  terrific,  if 
possible,  than  death  itself.  Little  notice  was 
taken  of  this  murder,  and  it  all  passed  ofl"  without 
any  action  being  taken  against  the  murderer. 
The  masters  used  to  try  to  make  me  whip  their 
negroes.  They  said  I  could  not  get  along  with 
them  without  flogging  them — but  I  found  I  could 
get  along  better  with  them  by  coaxing  and  en- 
couraging them  than  by  beating  and  flogging 
them.  I  had  not  a  heart  to  beat  and  kick  about 
those  beings ;  although  I  had  not  grace  in  my 
heart  the  three  first  years  I  was  there,  yet  I  sym- 
pathised with  the  slaves.  I  never  was  guilty  of 
having  but  one  whipped,  and  he  was  whipped 
but  eight  or  nine  blows.  The  circumstances 
were  as  follows  :  Several  negroes  were  put  under 
my  care,  one  spring,  who  xoere  fresh  from  Congo 
and  Guinea.  I  could  not  understaifc  them,  nei- 
ther  could  they  me,  in  one  word  I  spoke.  I 
therefore  pointed  to  them  to  go  to  work  ;  all 
obeyed  me  willingly  but  one — he  refused.  I  told 
the  driver  that  he  must  tie  him  up  and  whip  him. 
After  he  had  tied  him,  by  the  help  of  some  others, 
we  struck  him  eight  or  nine  blows,  and  he 
yielded.  I  told  the  driver  not  to  strike  him  ano- 
ther blow.  We  untied  him,  and  lie  went  to  work, 
and  continued  faithful  all  the  time  he  was  with 
me.  This  one  was  not  a  sample,  however — many 
of  them  have  such  exalted  views  of  freedom  that 


it  is  hard  work  for  the  masters  to  whip  them  into 
brutes,  that  is  to  subdue  their  noble  spirits.  The 
negroes  being  put  under  my  care,  did  not  prevent 
the  masters  from  whipping  them  when  they 
pleased.  But  they  never  whipped  much  in  my 
presence.  This  work  was  usually  left  until  1 
had  dismissed  the  hands.  On  the  plantations, 
the  masters  chose  to  have  the  slaves  w^hipped  in 
the  presence  of  all  the  hands,  to  strike  them  with 
terror. 

VI.    RUNAWAYS. 

Numbers  of  poor  slaves  run  away  from  their 
masters  ;  some  of  whom  doubtless  perish  in  the 
swamps  and  other  secret  places,  rather  than  re- 
turn back  again  to  their  masters  ;  others  stay 
away  until  they  almost  famish  with  hunger,  and 
then  return  home  rather  than  die,  while  others 
who  abscond  are  caught  by  the  negro-hunters,  in 
various  ways.  Sometimes  the  master  will  hire 
some  of  his  most  trusty  negroes  to  secure  any 
stray  negroes,  who  come  on  to  their  plantations, 
for  many  come  at  night  to  beg  food  of  their 
friends  on  the  plantations.  The  slaves  assist 
one  another  usually  when  they  can,  and  not  be 
found  out  in  it.  The  master  can  now  and  then, 
however,  get  some  of  his  hands  to  betray  the  run- 
aways. Some  obtain  their  living  in  hunting  after 
lost  slaves.  The  most  common  way  is  to  train 
up  young  dogs  to  follow  them.  This  can  easily 
be  done  by  obliging  a  slave  to  go  out  into  the 
woods,  and  climb  a  tree,  and  then  put  the  young 
dog  on  his  track,  and  with  a  little  assistance  he 
can  be  taught  to  follow  him  to  the  tree,  and  when 
found,  of  course  the  dog  would  bark  at  such 
game  as  a  poor  negro  on  a  tree.  There  was  a 
man  living  in  Savannah  when  I  was  there,  who 
kept  a  large  number  of  dogs  for  no  other  pur- 
pose than  to  hunt  runaway  negroes.  And  he 
always  had  enough  of  this  work  to  do,  for  hun- 
dreds of  runaways  are  never  found,  but  could  he 
get  news  soon  after  one  had  fled,  he  was  almost 
sure  to  catch  him.  And  this  fear  of  the  dogs  re- 
strains multitudes  from  running  off. 

When  he  went  out  on  a  hunting  excursion,  to  be 
gone  several  days,  he  took  several  persons  with  him, 
armed  generally  with  rifles  and  followed  by  the 
dogs.  The  dogs  were  as  true  to  the  track  of  a 
negro,  if  one  had  passed  recently,  as  a  hound  is 
to  the  track  of  a  fox  when  he  has  found  it.  When 
the  dogs  draw  near  to  their  game,  the  slave  must 
turn  and  fight  them  or  climb  a  tree.  If  the  latter, 
the  dogs  will  stay  and  bark  until  the  pursuers 
come.  The  blacks  frequently  deceive  the  dogs 
by  crossing  and  recrossing  the  creeks.  Should 
the  hunters  who  have  no  dogs,  start  a  slave  from 
his  hiding  place,  and  the  slave  not  stop  at  the 
hunter's  call,  he  will  shoot  at  him,  as  soon  as  he 
would  at  a  deer.  Some  masters  advertise  so  much 
for  a  runaway  slave,  dead  or  alive.  It  undoubt- 
edly gives  such  more  satisfaction  to  know  that 
their  property  is  dead,  than  to  know  that  it  is 
alive  without  being  able  to  get  it.  Some  slaves 
run  away  who  never  mean  to  be  taken  alive,  I 
will  mention  one.  He  run  off  and  was  pursued 
by  the  dogs,  but  having  a  weapon  with  him  he 
succeeded  in  killing  two  or  three  of  the  dogs  ; 
but  was  afterwards  shot.  He  had  declared,  that 
he  never  would  be  taken  alive.  The  people 
rejoiced  at  the  death  of  the  slave,  but  lamented 


22 


Personal  Narratives — Sarah  M.  Grimke. 


the  death  of  the  dogs,  they  were  such  ravenous 
hunters.  Poor  fellow,  he  fought  for  life  and 
liberty  like  a  hero  ;  but  the  bullets  brought  him 
down.  A  negro  can  hardly  walk  unmolested 
at  the  south. — Every  colored  stranger  that  walks 
the  streets  is  suspected  of  being  a  runaway  slave, 
hence  he  must  be  interrogated  by  every  negro 
hater  whom  he  meets,  and  should  he  not  have  a 
pass,  he  must  be  arrested  and  hurried  off  to  jail. 
Some  masters  boast  that  their  slaves  would  not 
be  free  if  they  could.  How  little  they  know  of 
their  slaves  !  They  are  all  sighing  and  groaning 
for  freedom.     May  God  hasten  the  time  ! 

VII.    CONFINEMENT    AT    NIGHT. 

When  the  slaves  have  done  their  day's  work, 
they  must  be  herded  together  like  sheep  in  their 
yards,  or  on  their  plantations.  They  have  not  as 
much  liberty  as  northern  men  have,  who  are 
sent  to  jail  for  debt,  for  they  have  liberty  to 
walk  a  larger  yard  than  the  slaves  have.  The 
slaves  must  all  be  at  their  homes  precisely  at 
eight  o'clock,  p.m.  At  this  hour  the  drums  beat 
in  the  cities,  as  a  signal  for  every  slave  to  be  in 
his  den.  In  the  country,  the  signal  is  given  by 
firing  guns,  or  some  other  way  by  which  they 
may  know  the  hour  when  to  be  at  home.     After 


this  hour,  the  guard  in  the  cities,  and  patrols  in 
the  country,  being  well  armed,  are  on  duty  until 
daylight  in  the  morning.  If  they  catch  any 
negroes  during  the  night  without  a  pass,  they  are 
immediately  seized  and  hurried  away  to  the 
guard-house,  or  if  in  the  country  to  some  place 
of  confinement,  where  they  are  kept  until  nine 
o'clock,  A.  M.,  the  next  day,  if  not  called  for  by 
that  time,  they  are  hurried  off  to  jail,  and  there 
remain  until  called  for  bj^  their  master  and  his 
jail  and  guard  house  fees  paid.  The  guards  and 
patrols  receive  one  dollar  extra  for  every  one 
they  can  catch,  who  has  not  a  pass  from  his 
master,  or  overseer,  but  few  masters  will  give 
their  slaves  passes  to  be  out  at  night  unless  on  some 
special  business  :  notwithstanding,  many  venture 
out,  watching  every  step  they  take  for  the  guard 
or  patrol,  the  consequence  is,  some  are  caught 
almost  every  night,  and  some  nights  many  are 
taken  ;  some,  fleeing  after  being  hailed  b}'  the 
watch,  are  shot  down  in  attempting  their  escape, 
others  are  crippled  for  life.  I  find  I  shall  not  be 
able  to  write  out  more  at  present.  My  ministe- 
rial duties  are  pressing,  and  if  I  delay  this  till  the 
next  mail,  I  fear  it  will  not  be  in  season.  Your 
brother  for  those  who  are  in  bonds, 

Horace  Moulton. 


NARRATIVE   AND  TESTIMONY   OF  SARAH  M.  GRIMKE. 


Miss  Grimke  is  a  daughter  of  the  late 
Judge  Grimke,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  South 
Carolina,  and  sister  of  the  late  Hon.  Thomas  S. 
Grimke. 

As  I  left  my  native  state  on  account  of  slave. 
rV',  and  deserted  the  home  of  my  fathers  to  escape 
the  sound  of  the  lash  and  the  shrieks  of  tortured 
victims,  I  would  gladly  bury  in  oblivion  the  re- 
collection of  those  scenes  with  which  I  have  been 
familiar ;  but  this  may  not,  cannot  be ;  they 
come  over  my  memory  like  gory  spectres,  and 
hn])lore  me  with  resistless  power,  in  the  name  of 
a  God  of  mercy,  in  the  name  of  a  crucified  Sa- 
vior, in  the  name  of  humanity ;  for  the  sake  of 
the  slaveholder,  as  well  as  the  slave,  to  bear 
witness  to  the  horrors  of  the  southern  prison 
house.  I  feel  impelled  by  a  sacred  sense  of 
duty,  by  my  obligations  to  my  country,  by  sym- 
pathy for  the  bleeding  victims  of  tyranny  and 
lust,  to  give  my  testimony  respecting  the  system 
of  American  slavery, — to  detail  a  few  facts,  most 
of  which  came  under  my  personal  observation. 
And  here  I  may  premise,  that  the  actors  in  these 
tragedies  were  all  men  and  women  of  the  high- 
est respectability,  and  of  the  first  families  in 
South  Carolina,  and,  with  one  exception,  citi- 
zens of  Charleston  ;  and  that  their  cruelties  did 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  affect  their  standing 
in  society. 

A  handsome  mulatto  w^oman,  about  18  or  20 
years  of  age,  whose  independent  spirit  could  not 
brook  the  degradation  of  slavery,  was  in  the 
habit  of  running  away :  for  this  offence  she  had 
been  repeatedly  sent  by  her  master  and  mistress 
to  be  whipped  by  the  keeper  of  the  Charleston 
3i'ork-house.  This  had  been  done  with  such  in- 
human severity,  as   to  lacerate    her  back  in  a 


most  shocking  manner;  a  finger  could  not  be 
laid  between  the  cuts.  But  the  love  of  hberty 
was  too  strong  to  be  annihilated  by  torture  ;  and, 
as  a  last  resort,  she  was  whipped  at  several  dif- 
ferent times,  and  kept  a  close  prisoner.  A  heavy 
iron  collar,  with  three  long  prongs  projecting 
from  it,  Vas  placed  round  her  neck,  and  a 
strong  and  sound  front  tooth  was  extracted,  to 
serve  as  a  mark  to  describe  her,  in  case  of  es- 
cape. Her  sufferings  at  this  time  were  agoniz- 
ing ;  she  could  lie  in  no  position  but  on  her  back, 
whieh' was  sore  from  scourgings,  as  I  can  testify, 
from  personal  inspection,  and  her  only  place  of 
rest  was  the  floor,  on  a  blanket.  These  outrages 
were  committed  in  a  family  where  the  mistress 
daily  read  the  scriptures,  and  assembled  her 
children  for  family  worship.  She  was  account- 
ed, and  was  really,  so  far  as  alms-giving  was 
concerned,  a  charitable  woman,  and  tender 
hearted  to  the  poor ;  and  yet  this  suffering  slave, 
who  was  the  seamstress  of  the  family,  was  con- 
tinually in  her  presence,  sitting  in  her  chamber 
to  sew,  or  engaged  in  her  other  household  work, 
with  her  lacerated  and  bleeding  back,  her  muti- 
lated mouth,  and  heavy  iron  collar,  without,  so 
far  as  appeared,  exciting  any  feelings  of  com- 
passion.       • 

A  highly  intelligent  slave,  who  panted  after 
freedom  with  ceaseless  longings,  made  many  at- 
tempts to  get  possession  of  himself.  For  every 
offence  he  was  punished  with  e.Ttreme  severity. 
At  one  time  he  was  tied  up  by  his  hands  to  a 
tree,  and  whipped  until  his  back  was  one  gore 
of  blood.  To  this  terrible  infliction  lie  was  sub- 
jected at  intervals  for  several  weeks,  and  kept 
heavily  ironed  while  at  his  work.  His  master 
one  day  accused  him  of  a  fault,  in  the  usual 
terms  dictated  by  passion  and  arbitrary  power; 


Personal  Narratives — Sarah  M.  Grimke. 


23 


the  man  protested  his  innocence,  but  was  not 
credited.  He  again  repelled  the  charge  with 
honest  indignation.  His  master's  temper  rose 
almost  to  frenzy ;  and  seizing  a  fork,  he  made  a 
deadly  plunge  at  the  breast  of  the  slave.  The 
man  being  far  his  superior  in  strength,  caught 
his  arm,  and  dashed  the  weapon  on  the  floor. 
His  master  grasped  at  his  throat,  but  the  slave 
disengaged  himself,  and  rushed  from  the  apart- 
ment. Having  made  his  escape,  he  fled  to  the 
woods ;  and  after  wandering  about  for  many 
months,  living  on  roots  and  berries,  and  enduring 
every  hardship,  he  was  arrested  and  committed 
to  jail.  Here  he  lay  for  a  considerable  time, 
allowed  scarcely  food  enough  to  sustain  life, 
whipped  in  the  most  shocking  manner,  and  con- 
fined in  a  cell  so  loathsome,  that  when  his  mas- 
ter visited  him,  he  said  the  stench  was  enough 
to  knock  a  man  down.  The  filth  had  never 
been  removed  from  the  apartment  since  the  poor 
creature  had  been  immured  in  it.  Although  a 
black  man,  such  had  been  the  effect  of  starva- 
tion and  suffering,  that  his  master  declared  he 
hardly  recognized  him — his  complexion  was  so 
yellow,  and  his  hair,  naturally  thick  and  black, 
had  become  red  and  scanty;  an  infallible  sign  of 
long  continued  living  on  bad  and  insufficient 
food.  Stripes,  imprisonment,  and  the  gnawings 
of  hunger,  had  broken  his  lofty  spirit  for  a  season  ; 
and,  to  use  his  master's  own  exultmg  expression, 
he  was  "  as  humble  as  a  dog."  After  a  time  he 
made  another  attempt  to  escape,  and  was  absent 
so  long,  that  a  reward  was  ofliered  for  him,  dead 
or  alive.  He  eluded  every  attempt  to  take  him, 
and  his  master,  despairing  of  ever  getting  him 
again,  offered  to  pardon  him  if  he  would  return 
home.  It  is  always  understood  that  such  intel- 
ligence will  reach  the  runaway  ;  and  according- 
ly, at  the  entreaties  of  his  wife  and  mdther,  the 
fugitive  once  more  consented  to  return  to  his  bit- 
ter bondage.  I  believe  this  was  the  last  effort  to 
obtain  his  liberty.  His  heart  became  touched 
with  the  power  of  the  gospel ;  and  the  spirit 
which  no  inflictions  could  subdue,  bowed  at  the 
cross  of  Jesus,  and  with  the  language  on  his 
lips — "the  cup  that  my  father  hath  given  me, 
shall  I  not  drink  it  ?"  submitted  to  the  yoke  of 
the  oppressor,  and  wore  his  chains  in  unmurmur- 
ing patience  till  death  released  him.  The  mas- 
ter who  perpetrated  these  wrongs  upon  his  slave, 
was  one  of  the  most  influential  and  honored  citi- 
zens of  South  Carolina,  and  to  his  equals  was 
bland,  and  courteous,  and  benevolent  even  to  a 
proverb. 

A  slave  who  had  been  separated  from  his 
wife,  because  it  best  suited  the  convenience  of 
his  owner,  ran  away.  He  was  taken  up  on  the 
plantation  where  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  ten- 
derly attached,  then  lived.  His  only  object  in 
running  away  was  to  return  to  her — no  other 
fault  was  attributed  to  him.  For  this  offence  he 
was  confined  in  the  stocks  six  weeks,  in  a  mis- 
erable hovel,  not  weather-tight.  He  received 
fifty  lashes  weekly  during  that  time,  was  allow- 
ed food  barely  sufficient  to  sustain  him,  and  when 
released  from  confinement,  was  not  permitted  to 
return  to  his  wife.  His  master,  although  him- 
self a  husband  and  a  father,  was  unmoved  by  j 
the  touching  appeals  of  the  slave,  who  entreated 
that  he  might  only  remain  with  his  wife,  promis-  J 


ing  to  discharge  his  duties  faithfully ;  his  master 
continued  inexorable,  and  he  was  torn  from  his 
wife  and  family.  The  owner  of  this  slave  was  a 
professing  Christian,  in  full  membership  with  the 
church,  and  this  circumstance  occurred  when  he 
was  confined  to  his  chamber  during  his  last  ill. 
ness. 

A  punishment  di'eaded  more  by  the  slaves 
than  whipping,  unless  it  is  unusually  severe,  is 
one  which  was  invented  by  a  female  acquaint, 
ance  of  mine  in  Charleston — I  heard  her  say  so 
with  much  satisfaction.  It  is  standing  on  one 
foot  and  holding  the  other  in  the  hand.  After- 
wards it  was  improved  upon,  and  a  strap  was 
contrived  to  fasten  around  the  ankle  and  pass 
around  the  neck ;  so  that  the  least  weight  of  the 
foot  resting  on  the  strap  would  choke  the  person. 
The  pain  occasioned  by  this  unnatural  position 
was  great ;  and  when  continued,  as  it  sometimes 
was,  for  an  hour  or  more,  produced  intense 
agony.  I  heard  this  same  woman  sajr,  that  she 
had  the  ears  of  her  waiting  maid  slit  for  some 
petty  theft.  This  she  told  me  in  the  presence  of 
the  girl,  who  was  standing  in  the  room.  She 
often  had  the  helpless  victims  of  her  cruelty  se- 
verely whipped,  not  scrupling  herself  to  wield 
the  instrument  of  torture,  and  with  her  own 
hands  inflict  severe  chastisement.  Her  husband 
was  less  inhuman  than  his  wife,  but  he  was  often 
goaded  on  by  her  to  acts  of  great  severity.  In 
his  last  illness  I  was  sent  for,  and  watched  be- 
side  his  death  couch.  The  girl  on  whom  he  had 
so  often  inflicted  punishment,  haunted  his  dying 
hours ;  and  when  at  length  the  king  of  terrors 
approached,  he  shrieked  in  utter  agony  of  spirit, 
"  Oh,  the  blackness  of  darkness,  the  black  imps, 
I  can  see  them  all  around  me — take  them 
away  !"  and  amid  such  exclamations  he  expired. 
These  persons  were  of  one  of  the  first  families  in 
Cliarleston. 

A  friend  of  mine,  in  whose  veracity  1  have  en. 
tire  confidence,  told  me  that  about  two  years  ago, 
a  woman  in  Charleston  with  whom  I  was  well 
acquainted,  had  starved  a  female  slave  to  death. 
She  was  confined  in  a  solitary  apartment,  kept 
constantly  tied,  and  condemned  to  the  slow  and 
horrible  death  of  starvation.  This  woman  was 
notoriously  cruel.  To  those  who  have  read  the 
narrative  of  James  Williams  I  need  only  say,  that 
the  character  of  young  Larrimore's  wife  is  an  ex. 
act  description  of  this  female  tyrant,  whose  coun- 
tenance was  ever  dressed  in  smiles  when  in  the 
presence  of  strangers,  but  whose  heart  was  as  the 
nether  millstone  toward  her  slaves. 

As  I  was  traveling  in  the  lower  country  in 
South  Carolina,  a  number  of  years  since,  my  at. 
tention  was  suddenly  arrested  by  an  exclamation 
of  hon'or  from  the  coachman,  who  called  out, 
"  Look  there.  Miss  Sarah,  don't  you  see?"-I  looked 
in  the  direction  he  pointed,  and  saw  a  human 
head  stuck  up  on  a  high  pole.  On  inquiry,  I  found 
that  a  runaway  slave,  who  was  outlawed,  had  been 
shot  there,  his  head  severed  from  his  body,  and 
put  upon  the  public  highway,  as  a  terror  to  deter 
slaves  from  running  away. 

On  a  plantation  in  North  Carolina,  where  I  was 
visiting,  I  happened  one  day,  in  my  rambles,  to 
step  into  a  nenro  cabin  ;  my  compassion  was  in. 
stantly  called  forth  by  the  object  which  presented 
itself.     A  slave,  whose  head  was  white  with  age, 


24 


Personal  Narratives — Sarah  M.  Grimk6. 


was  lying  in  one  corner  of  the  hovel ;  he  had  un- 
der his  head  a  few  filthy  rags,  but  the  boards  were 
his  only  bed,  it  was  the  depth  of  winter,  and  the 
wind  whistled  through  every  part  of  the  dilapi- 
dated building — he  opened  his  languid  eyes  when 
I  spo\e,  andinreplyto  my  question,  "  What  is  the 
matter  ?"  he  said,  "  I  am  dying  of  a  cancer  in  my 
side." — As  he  removed  the  rags  which  covered  the 
sore,  I  found  that  it  extended  half  round  the  body, 
and  was  sliockingly  neglected.  I  inquired  if  he  had 
any  nurse.  "  No,  missey,"  was  his  answer,  "butde 
people  (the  slaves)  very  kind  tome,  dey  often  steal 
time  to  run  and  see  me  and  fetch  me  some 
ting  to  eat  ;  if  dey  did  not,  I  might  starve." 
The  master  and  mistress  of  this  man,  who  had 
been  worn  out  in  their  service,  were  remarkable 
for  their  intelligence,  and  their  hospitality  knew 
no  bounds  towards  those  who  were  of  their  own 
grade  in  society  :  the  master  had  for  some  time 
held  the  highest  military  office  in  North  Carolina, 
and  not  long  previous  to  the  time  of  which  I 
speak,  was  the  Governor  of  the  State. 

On  a  plantation  in  South  Carolina,  I  witnessed 
a  similar  case  of  suffering — an  aged  woman  sufTer- 
ing  under  an  incurable  disease  in  the  same  miser- 
ably neglected  situation.  The  "  owner"  of  this 
slave  was  proverbially  kind  to  her  negroes  ;  so 
much  so,  tliat  the  planters  in  the  neighborhood 
said  she  spoiled  them,  and  set  a  bad  example, 
which  might  produce  discontent  among  the  sur- 
rounding slaves  ;  yet  I  have  seen  this  woman 
tremble  with  rage,  when  her  slaves  displeased  her, 
and  heard  her  use  language  to  them  which  could 
only  be  expected  from  an  inmate  of  Bridewell ; 
and  have  known  her  in  a  gust  of  passion  send  a 
favorite  slave  to  the  workhouse  to  be  severely 
whipped. 

Another  fact  occurs  to  me.  A  young  woman 
about  eighteen,  stated  some  circumstances  rela- 
tive to  her  young  master,  which  were  thought  de- 
rogatory to  his  character  ;  whether  true  or  false,  I 
am  unable  to  say ;  she  was  threatened  with 
punishment,  but  persisted  in  affirming  that  she 
had  only  spoken  the  truth.  Finding  her  incorrigible, 
it  was  concluded  to  send  her  to  the  Charleston 
v.^orkhouse  and  have  her  whipt ;  she  pleaded  in 
vain  for  a  commutation  of  her  sentence,  not  so 
much  because  she  dreaded  the  actual  suffering, 
as  because  her  delicate  mind  shrunk  from  the 
shocking  exposure  of  her  person  to  the  eyes  of 
brutal  and  licentious  men  ;  she  declared  to  me  that 
death  would  be  preferable  ;  but  her  entreaties 
were  vain,  and  as  there  was  no  means  of  escaping 
but  by  running  awav,  she  resorted  to  it  as  a  des- 

Kerate  remedy,  for  her  timid  nature  never  could 
ave  braved  the  perils  necessarily  encountered  by 
fugitive  slaves,  had  not  her  mind  been  thrown  into 
a  state  of  despair. — She  was  apprehended  after  a 
few  weeks,  by  two  slave-catchers,  in  a  deserted 


house,  and  as  it  was  late  in  the  evening  they  con- 
cluded to  spend  the  night  there.  What  inhiunan 
treatment  she  received  from  them  has  never  been 
revealed.  They  tied  her  with  cords  to  their  bo- 
dies, and  supposing  they  had  secured  their  victim, 
.soon  fell  into  a  deep  sleep,  probably  rendered 
more  profound  by  intoxication  and  fatigue  ;  but 
the  miserable  captive  slumbered  not ;  by  some 
means  she  disengaged  herself  from  her  bonds,  and 
again  fled  through  the  lone  wilderness.  After  a 
few  days  she  was  discovered  in  a  wretched  Imt, 
which  seemed  to  have  'been  long  uninhabited  ; 
she  was  speechless  ;  a  raging  fever  consume  d  her 
vitals,  and  when  a  physician  saw  her,  he  said  she 
was  dying  of  a  disease  brought  on  by  over  fatigue  ; 
her  mother  was  permitted  to  visit  her,  but  ere  she 
reached  her,  the  damps  of  death  stood  upon  her 
brow,  and  she  had  only  the  sad  consolation  of 
looking  on  the  death-struck  form  and  convulsive 
agonies  of  her  child. 

A  beloved  friend  in  South  Carolina,  the  wife 
of  a  slaveholder,  with  whom  I  often  mingled  mv 
tears,  when  helpless  and  hopeless  we  deplored 
together  the  horrors  of  slavery,  related  to  me 
some  years  since  the  following  circumstance. 

On  the  plantation  adjoining  her  husband's, 
therewasa  slave  of  pre-eminentpicty.  His  master 
was  not  aprofessorof  religion,  butthesuperiorex- 
cellence  of  this  disciple  of  Christ  was  not  unmark- 
ed by  him,  and  I  believe  he  was  so  sensible  of  the 
good  influence  of  his  piety  that  he  did  not  de- 
prive him  of  the  few  religious  privileges  within 
his  reach.  A  planter  was  one  day  dining  with 
the  owner  of  this  slave,  and  in  the  course  of  con- 
versation observed,  that  all  profession  of  religion 
among  slaves  was  mere  hypocrisy.  The  other  as- 
serted a  contrary  opinion,  adding,  I  have  a  slave 
who  I  believe  would  rather  die  than  deny  his  Sa- 
viour. This  was  ridiculed,  and  the  master  urged 
to  prove  the  assertion.  He  accordingly  sent  for 
this  man  of  God,  and  peremptorily  ordered  liim 
to  deny  his  belief  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The 
slave  pleaded  to  be  excused,  constantly  affirming 
that  he  would  rather  die  than  deny  the  Redeemer, 
whose  blood  was  shed  for  him.  His  master, 
after  vainly  trying  to  induce  obedience  by  threats, 
liad  him  terribly  whipped.  The  fortitude  of  the 
sufferer  was  not  to  be  shaken  ;  he  nobly  reject- 
ed the  offer  of  exemption  from  further  chastise- 
ment at  the  expense  of  destroying  his  soul,  and 
this  blessed  martyr  died  in  consequence  of  this 
severe  injliction.  Oh,  how  bright  a  gem  will 
this  victim  of  irresponsible  power  be,  in  that 
crown  which  sparkles  on  the  Redeemer's  brow  ; 
and  that  many  such  will  cluster  there,  I  have 
not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt. 

Sarah  M.  Grimke. 
Fort  Lee,  Bergen  County, 

New  Jersey,  3rd  Month,  26th,  1830. 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  John  Graham. 


25 


TESTIMONY   OF   THE    LATE    REV.  JOHN    GRAHAM, 


of  Townsend,  Mass.,  who  resided  in  S.  Carolina, 
from  1831,  to  the  latter  part  of  1833.  Mr.  Gra. 
ham  graduated  at  Amherst  College  in  1829, 
spent  some  time  at  the  Theological  Seminary,  in 
New  Haven,  Ct.,  and  went  to  South  Carolina,  for 
his  health  in  1830.  He  resided  principally  on 
the  island  of  St.  Helena,  S.  C.,  and  most  of  the 
time  in  the  family  of  James  Tripp,  Esq.,  a 
wealthy  slave  holding  planter.  During  his 
residence  at  St.  Helena,  he  was  engaged  as  an 
instructer,  and  was  most  of  the  time  the  stated 
preacher  on  the  island.  Mr.  G.  was  extensively 
known  in  Massachusetts  ;  and  his  fellow  students 
and  instructors,  at  Amherst  College,  and  at  Yale 
Theological  Seminary,  can  bear  testimony  to 
his  integrity  and  moral  worth.  The  following 
are  extracts  of  letters,  which  he  wrote  while  in 
South  Carolina,  to  an  intimate  friend  in  Concord, 
Massachusetts,  who  has  kindly  furnished  them 
for  publication. 

EXTRACTS. 

Springfield,  St.  Helena  Isl.,  S.  C.,Oct.  22, 1832. 
"  Last  night,  about  one  o'clock,  I  was  awaken, 
ed  by  the  report  of  a  musket.  I  was  out  of  bed 
almost  instantly.  On  opening  my  window,  I 
found  the  report  proceeded  from  my  host's  cham- 
ber. He  had  let  off  his  pistol,  which  he  usually 
keeps  by  him  night  and  day,  at  a  slave,  who  had 
come  into  the  yard,  and  as  it  appears,  had  been 
with  one  of  his  house  servants.  He  did  not  hit 
him.  The  ball,  taken  from  a  pine  tree  the  next 
morning,  I  will  show  you,  should  I  be  spared  by 
Providence  ever  to  return  to  you.  The  house 
servant  was  called  to  the  master's  chamber, 
where  he  received  75  lashes,  very  severe  too  ;  and 
I  could  not  only  hear  every  lash,  but  each  groan 
which  succeeded  very  distinctly  as  I  lay  in  my 
bed.  What  was  then  done  with  the  servant  I 
know  not.  Nothing  was  said  of  this  to  me  in 
the  morning  and  I  presume  it  will  ever  be  kept 
from  me  wilh  care,  if  I  may  judge  of  kindred 
acts.    I  shall  make  no  comment." 

In  the  same  letter,  Mr.  Graham  says  : — 
"  You  ask  me  of  my  hostess" — then  after 
giving  an  idea  of  her  character  says :  "  To  day, 
she  has  I  verily  believe  laid,  in  a  very  severe 
manner  too,  more  than  300  stripes,  upon  the 
house  servants,"  (17  in  number.) 

Darlington,  Court  House.  S.  C.  March,  28th,  1838. 
"  I  walked  up  to  the  Court  House  to  day, 
where  I  heard  one  of  the  most  interesting  cases 
I  ever  heard.  I  say  interesting,  on  account  of 
its  novelty  to  me,  though  it  had  no  novelty  for  the 
people,  as  such  cases  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 
The  case  was  this  :  To  know  whether  two 
ladies,  present  in  court,  were  white  or  black. 
The  ladies  were  dressed  well,  seemed  modest, 
and  were  retiring  and  neat  in  their  look,  having 
blue  eyes,  black  hair,  and  appeared  to  under- 
stand much  of  the  etiquette  of  southern  behav- 
iour. 


"  A  man,  more  avaricious  than  humane,  as  is 
the  case  with  most  of  the  rich  planters,  laid  a 
remote  claim  to  those  two  modest,  unassuming, 
innocent  and  free  young  ladies  as  his  property, 
with  the  design  of  putting  them  into  the  field, 
and  thus  increasing  his  STOCK  !  As  well  as 
the  people  of  Concord  are  known  to  be  of  a 
peaceful  disposition,  and  for  their  love  of  good 
order,  I  verily  believe  if  a  similar  trial  should  be 
brought  forward  there  and  conducted  as  this 
was,  the  good  people  would  drive  the  lawyers 
out  of  the  house.  Such  would  be  their  indigna- 
tion at  their  language,  and  at  the  mean  under-hand- 
ed manner  of  trying  to  ruin  those  young  ladies, 
as  to  their  standing  in  society  in  this  district, 
if  they  could  not  succeed  in  dooming  them  for 
life  to  the  degraded  condition  of  slavery,  and  all 
its  intolerable  cruelties.  Oh  slavery  !  if  statues 
of  marble  could  curse  you,  they  would  speak. 
If  bricks  could  speak,  tlicy  would  all  surely  thun. 
der  out  their  anathemas  against  you,  accursed 
thing !  How  many  white  sons  and  daughters, 
have  bled  and  groaned  under  the  lash  in  this 
sultry  climate,"  &c. 

Under  date  of  March,  1832,  Mr.  G.  writes, 
"  I  have  been  doing  what  I  hope  never  to  he 
called  to  do  again,  and  what  I  fear  I  have  badly 
done,  though  performed  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
namely,  sewing  up  a  very  bad  wound  made  by  a 
wild  hog.  The  slave  was  hunting  wild  hogs, 
when  one,  being  closely  pursued,  turned  upon  his 
pursuer,  who  turning  to  run,  was  caught  by  the 
animal,  thrown  down,  and  badly  wounded  in  the 
thigh.  The  wound  is  about  five  inches  long  and 
very  deep.  It  was  made  by  the  tusk  of  the  ani- 
mal. The  slaves  brought  him  to  one  of  the  huts 
on  Mr.  Tripp's  plantation  and  made  every  exer- 
tion to  stop  the  blood  by  filling  the  wound  with 
ashes,(their  remedy  for  stopping  blood)  but  finding 
this  to  fail  they  came  to  me  (there  being  no  other 
white  person  on  the  plantation,  as  it  is  now  holi- 
days) to  know  if  I  could  stop  the  blood.  I  went 
and  found  that  the  poor  creature  must  bleed  to 
death  unless  it  could  be  stopped  soon.  I  called 
for  a  needle  and  succeeded  in  sewing  it  up  as 
well  as  I  could,  and  in  stopping  the  blood.  In 
a  short  time  his  master,  who  had  been  sent  for 
came  ;  and  oh,  you  would  have  shuddered  if  you 
had  heard  the  awful  oaths  that  fell  from  his  lips, 
threatening  in  the  same  breath  "  to  pay  him  for 
that .'"  I  left  him  as  soon  as  decency  would  per- 
mit, with  his  hearty  thanks  that  I  had  saved  him 
^500  !  Oh,  may  heaven  protect  the  poor,  suffer- 
ing, fainting  slave,  and  show  his  master  his  wan 
ton  cruelty — oh  slavery  !  slavery !" 

Under  date  of  July,  1832,  Mr.  G.  writes,  "  1 
wish  you  could  have  been  at  the  breakfast  table 
with  me  this  morning  to  have  seen  and  heard 
what  I  saw  and  heard,  not  that  I  wish  your  ear 
and  heart  and  soul  pained  as  mine  is,  '  with 
every  day's'  observation  'of  wrong  and  out- 
rage' with  which  this  place  is  filled,  but  that  you 
might  have  auricular  and  ocular  evidence  of  the 
cruelty  of  slavery,  of  cruelties  that  mortal  lan- 
guage can  never  describe — that  you  might  see 
the  tender  mercies  of  a  hardened  slaveholder, 
one  who  bears  the  name  of  being  one  of  the  mild' 


26 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Poe. 


est  and  viost  merciful  masters  of  tckich  this  isl. 
and  can  boast.  Oh,  my  friend,  atiollier  is  scream- 
infj  under  the  lash,  in  the  shed-room,  but  for 
what  I  know  not.  The  scene  this  morning  was 
truly  distressing  to  me.  It  was  this  : — After  the 
blessing  was  asked  at  the  breakfast  table,  one  of 
the  servants,  a  woman  grown,  in  giving  one  of 
the  children  some  molasses,  happened  to  pour  out 
a  little  more  than  usual,  though  not  more  thanlhe 
child  usually  eats.  Her  master  was  angry  at  the 
petty  and  indifferent  mistake,  or  slip  of  the  hand. 
He  rose  from  the  table,  took  both  of  her  hands 
in  one  of  his,  and  with  the  other  began  to  beat 
lier,  first  on  one  side  of  her  head  and  then  on  the 
other,  and  repeating  this,  till,  as  he  said  on  sitting 
down  at  table,  it  hurt  his  hand  too  much  to  con- 
tinue it  longer.  He  then  took  off  his  shoe,  and 
with  the  heel  began  in  the  same  manner  as 
v.ith  his  hand,  till  the  poor  creature  could  no 
longer  endure  it  without  screeches  and  raising  her 
elbow  as  it  is  natural  to  ward  off  the  blows.  He 
then  called  a  great  overgrown  negro  to  hold  her 
/lands  behind  her  while  he  should  wreak  his  ven- 
geance upon  the  poor  servant.  In  this  position 
he  began  again  to  beat  the  poor  suffering  wretch. 
It  now  became  intolerable  to  bear ;  she  fell, 
screaming  to  me  for  help.  After  she  fell,  he  beat 
her  until  I  thought  she  would  have  died  in  his 
liands.     She  got  up,  however,  went   out   and 


washed  off  "the  blood  and  came  in  before  we  rose 
from  table,  one  of  the  most  pitiable  objects  I 
ever  saw  till  I  came  to  the  South.  Her  ears 
were  almost  as  thick  as  my  hand,  her  eyes  aw- 
fully blood-shotten,  her  iips,  nose,  cheeks,  chin, 
and  whole  head  swollen  so  that  no  one  would 
have  known  it  was  Etta — and  for  all  this,  she  had 
to  turn  round  as  she  was  going  out  and  thank  her 
master .'  Now,  all  this  was  done  wliile  I  was  fit- 
ting at  breakfast  with  the  rest  of  the  family. 
Think  you  not  I  wished  myself  sitting  with  the 
peaceful  and  happy  circle  around  your  table  ? 
Think  of  my  feelings,  but  pity  tlie  "poor  negro 
slave,  who  not  only  fans  his  cruel  master  when 
he  eats  and  sleeps,  but  bears  the  stripes  his  ca- 
price may  inflict.  Think  of  this,  and  let  heaven 
hear  your  prayers." 

In  a  letter  dated  St.  Helena  Island,  S.  C,  Dec. 
3, 1832,  Mr.  G.  writes,  "  If  a  slave  here  complains 
to  his  master,  that  his  task  is  too  great,  his  master 
at  once  calls  him  a  scoundrel  and  tells  him  it  is 
only  because  he  has  not  enough  to  do,  and  orders 
the  driver  to  increase  his  task,  however  unable  he 
may  be  for  the  performance  of  it.  I  saw  twenty- 
seven  ivhipped  at  one  time  just  because  they  did 
not  do  more,  when  the  poor  creatures  were  so 
tired  that  they  could  scarcely  drag  one  foot  after 
the  other." 


TESTIMONY   OF  MR.   WILLIAM   POE. 


Rlr.  Poe  is  a  native  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  and 
was  formerly  a  slaveholder.  He  was  for  several 
years  a  merchant  in  Richmond,  and  subsequently 
in  Lynchburg,  Virginia.  A  few  years  since,  he 
emancipated  his  slaves,  and  removed  to  Hamil- 
ton County,  Ohio,  near  Cincinnati ;  where  he  is 
a  highly  respected  ruhng  elder  in  the  Presbyterian 
church.     He  says, — 

I  am  pained  exceedingly,  and  nothing  but  my 
duty  to  God,  to  the  oppressors,  and  to  the  poor 
down-trodden  slaves,  v/ho  go  mourning  all  their 
days,  could  move  me  to  say  a  word.  I  will 
state  to  y^ou  a  few  cases  of  the  abuse  of  the 
slaves,  but  time  would  fail,  if  I  had  language  to 
tell  how  many  and  great  are  the  inflictions  of 
slavery,  even  in  its  mildest  form. 

Benjamin  James  Hafris,  a  wealthy  tobacconist 
of  Richmond,  Virginia,  whipped  a  slave  girl 
fifteen  years  old  to  death.  While  he  was  whip- 
ping her,  his  wife  heated  a  smoothing  iron,  put  it 
on  her  body  in  various  places,  and  burned  her 
severely.  The  verdict  of  the  coroner's  inquest 
was,  "  Died  of  excessive  whipping."  He  was 
tried  in  Richmond,  and  acquitted.  I  attended 
the  trial.  Some  years  after,  this  same  Harris 
whipped  another  slave  to  death.  The  man  had 
not  done  so  much  work  as  was  required  of  him. 
After  a  number  of  protracted  and  violent  scourg- 
mgs,  with  short  intervals  between,  the  slave  died 
under  the  lash.  Harris  was  tried,  and  again 
acquitted,  because  none  but  blacks  saw  it  done. 
The  same  man  afterwards  whipped  another  slave 
severely,  for  not  doing  work  to  please  him.  After 
repeated  and  severe  floggings  in  quick  succes- 


sion, for  the  same  cause,  the  slave,  in  despair  of 
pleasing  him,  cut  off"  his  own  hand.  Harris  soon 
after  became  a  bankrupt,  went  to  New  Orleans 
to  recruit  his  finances,  failed,  removed  to  Ken- 
tucky, became  a  maniac,  and  died. 

A  captain  in  the  United  States'  Navy,  who 
married  a  daughter  of  the  collector  of  the  port 
of  Richmond,  and  resided  there,  became  ofTended 
with  his  negro  boy,  took  him  into  the  meat 
house,  put  him  upon  a  stool,  crossed  his  hands 
before  him,  tied  a  rope  to  them,  threw  it  over  a 
joist  in  the  building,  drew  the  boy  up  so  that  he 
could  just  stand  on  the  stool  with  his  toes,  and 
kept  him  in  that  position,  flogging  him  severely 
at  intervals,  until  the  boy  became  so  exhausted 
that  he  reeled  oflf  the  stool,  and  swung  by  liis 
hands  until  he  died.  The  master  was  tried  and 
acquitted. 

In  Goochland  County,  Virginia,  an  overseer 
tied  a  slave  to  a  tree,  flogged  him  again  and 
again  with  great  severity,  then  piled  brush  around 
him,  set  it  on  fire,  and  burned  him  to  death. 
The  overseer  was  tried  and  imprisoned.  The 
whole  transaction  may  be  found  on  the  records 
of  the  court. 

In  traveling,  one  day,  from  Petersburg  to 
Richmond,  Virginia,  I  heard  cries  of  distress  at  a 
distance,  on  the  road.  I  rode  up,  and  found  two 
white  men,  beating  a  slave.  'One  of  them  had 
hold  of  a  rope,  which  was  passed  under  the  bottom 
of  a  fence ;  the  other  end  was  fastened  around 
the  neck  of  the  slave,  who  was  thrown  flat  on 
the  ground,  on  his  face,  with  his  back  bared. 
The  other  was  beating  him  furiously  with  a 
large  hickory. 

A  slaveholder  in   Henrico  County,  Virginia, 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


27 


had  a  slave  who  used  frequently  to  work  for  my 
father.  One  morning  he  came  into  the  field  with 
his  back  completely  cut  up,  and  mangled  from 
his  head  to  his  heels.  The  man  was  so  stiff 
and  sore  he  could  scarcely  walk.  This  same 
person  got  offended  with  another  of  his  slaves, 
knocked  him  down,  and  struck  out  one  of  his 
eyes  with  a  maul.  The  eyes  of  several  of  his 
slaves  were  injured  by  similar  violence. 

In  Richmond,  Virginia,  a  company  occupied 
as  a  dwelling  a  large  warehouse.  They  got  an. 
gry  with  a  negro  lad,  one  of  their  slaves,  took 
him  into  the  cellar,  tied  his  hands  with  a  rope, 
bored  a  hole  through  the  floor,  and  passed  the 
rope  up  through  it.  Some  of  the  family  drew  up  the 
boy,  while  others  whipped.  This  they  continued 
until  the  boy  died.  The  warehouse  was  owned 
by  a  Mr.  Whitlock,  on  the  scite  of  one  formerly 
ov.ned  by  a  Mr.  Phil  pot. 

Joseph  Chilton,  a  resident  of  Campbell  County, 
Virginia,  purchased  a  quart  of  tanners'  oil,  for 
the  purpose,  as  he  said,  of  putting  it  on  one  of 
his  negro's  heads,  that  he  had  sometime  previous 
pitched  or  tarred  over,  for  running  avv'ay. 

In  the  town  of  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  there  was 


a  negro  man  put  in  prison,  charged  with  having 
pillaged  some  packages  of  goods,  which  he,  as 
head  man  of  a  boat,  received  at  Richmond,  to 
be  delivered  at  Lynchburg.  The  goods  belonged 
to  A.  B.  Nichols,  of  Liberty,  Bedford  County, 
Virginia.  He  came  to  Lynchburg,  and  desired 
the  jailor  topermithim  to  whip  the  negro,  to  make 
him  confess,  as  there  was  no  proof  against  him. 
Mr.  Williams,  (I  think  that  is  his  name,)  a 
pious  Methodist  man,  a  great  stickler  for  law 
and  good  order,  professedly  a  great  friend  to  the 
black  man,  delivered  the  negro  into  the  hands  of 
Nichols.  Nichols  told  me  that  he  took  the  slave, 
tied  his  wrists  together,  then  drew  his  arms  down 
so  far  below  his  knees  as  to  permit  a  staff  to 
pass  above  the  arms  under  the  knees,  thereby 
placing  the  slave  in  a  situation  that  he  could  not 
move  hand  or  foot.  He  then  commenced  his 
bloody  work,  and  continued,  at  intervals,  until 
500  blows  were  inflicted.  I  received  this  state- 
ment from  Nichols  himself,  who  was,  by  the  v.^ay, 
a  son  of  the  land  oj  "  steady  habits"  where  there 
are  many  like  him,  if  we  may  judge  from  their 
writings,  sayings,  and  doings. 


PRIVATIONS   OF   THE    SLAVES. 


I.  FOOD. 

We  begin  with  the  food  of  the  slaves,  because 
if  they  are  ill  treated  in  this  respect  we  may  be 
sure  that  they  will  be  ill  treated  in  other  respects, 
and  generally  in  a  greater  degree.  For  a  man 
habitually  to  stint  his  dependents  in  their  food,  is 
th»  extreme  of  meanness  and  cruelty,  and  the 
greatest  evidence  he  can  give  of  utter  indiffer- 
ence to  their  comfort.  The  father  who  stints  his 
children  or  domestics,  or  the  master  his  appren- 
tices, or  the  employer  his  laborers,  or  the  officer 
his  soldiers,  or  the  captain  his  crew,  when  able 
to  furnish  them  with  sufficient  food,  is  every 
where  looked  upon  as  unfeeling  and  cruel.  All 
mankind  agree  to  call  such  a  character  inhuman. 
If  any  thing  can  move  a  hard  heart,  it  is  the  ap- 
peal of  hunger.  The  Arab  robber  whose  whole 
life  is  a  prowl  for  plunder,  will  freely  divide  his 
camel's  milk  with  the  hungry  stranger  who  halts 
at  his  tent  door,  though  he  may  have  just  waylaid 
him  and  stripped  him  of  his  money.  Even  sava- 
ges take  pity  on  hunger.  Who  ever  went  fam- 
ishing irom  an  Indian's  wigwam.  As  much  as 
hunger  craves,  is  the  Indian's  free  gift  even 
to  an  enemy.  The  necessity  for  food  is  such  a 
universal  want,  so  constant,  manifest  and  impe. 
rative,  that  the  heart  is  more  touched  with  pity 
by  the  plea  of  hunger,  and  more  ready  to  supply 
that  want  than  any  other.  He  who  can  habitu- 
ally inflict  on  others  the  pain  of  hunger  by  giv- 
ing them  insufficient  food,  can  habitually  inflict 
on  them  any  other  pain.     He  can  kick  and  cuff 


and  flog  and  brand  them,  put  them  in  irons  or 
the  stocks,  can  overwork  them,  deprive  them  of 
sleep,  lacerate  their  backs,  make  them  work  with- 
out clothing,  and  sleep  without  covering. 

Other  cruelties  may  be  perpetrated  in  hoi 
blood  and  the  act  regretted  as  soon  as  done — the 
feeling  that  prompts  them  is  not  a  permanent 
state  of  mind,  but  a  violent  impulse  stung  up  by 
sudden  provocation.  But  he  who  habitually 
withholds  from  his  dependents  sufficient  suste- 
nance, can  plead  no  such  palliation.  The  fact 
itself  shows,  that  his  permanent  state  of  mind 
toward  them  is  a  brutal  indifference  to  their 
wants  and  sufferings — A  state  of  mind  which 
will  naturally,  necessarily,  show  itself  in  innu- 
merable privations  and  inflictions  upon  them, 
when  it  can  be  done  with  impunity. 

If,  therefore,  we  find  upon  examination,  that 
the  slaveholders  do  not  furnish  their  slaves  with 
sufficient  food,  and  do  thus  hab^ually  inflict  upon 
them  the  pain  of  hunger,  we  have  a  clue  furnish- 
ed to  their  treatment  in  other  respects,  and  may 
fairly  infer  habitual  and  severe  privations  and  in- 
flictions ;  not  merely  from  the  fact  that  men  are 
quick  to  feel  for  those  who  suffer  from  hunger, 
and  perhaps  more  ready  to  relieve  that  want 
than  any  other ;  but  also,  because  it  is  more  for 
the  interest  of  the  slaveholder  to  supply  that 
want  than  any  other ;  consequently,  if  the  slave 
suffer  in  this  respect,  he  must  as  the  general  rule, 
suffer  7nore  in  other  respects. 

We  now  proceed  to  show  that  the  slaves  have 


28 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


insufficient  food.  This  will  be  shown  first  from 
the  express  declarations  of  slaveholders,  and  other 
competent  witnesses  who  are,  or  have  been  resi- 
dents of  slave  states,  that  the  slaves  generally  are 
under-fed.     And  tlien,  by  the  laws  of  slave  states, 


and  by  the  testimony  of  slaveholders  and  others, 
the  kind,  quantity,  and  quality,  of  their  allowance 
will  be  given,  and  the  reader  left  to  judqje  for 
himself  whether  the  slave  must  not  be  a  sufferer. 


THE    SL*VES    SUFFER    FROM    HUNGER — DECLARATIONS    OF   SLAVE-HOLDERS    AND    OTHERS 


WITNESSES. 

Hon.  Alexander  Smyth,  a  slave  hold- 
er, and  for  ten  ytars,  Member  of 
Congrcds  from  Virginia,  hi  his  speech 
on  the  Missouri  question.  Jan  28tli, 
1820. 

Rev.  George  Whitefield,  in  his  letter, 
to  the  slave  holders  of  Md.  Va.  N  C. 
S.  C.  and  Ga.  published  in  Georgia,  just 
one  hundred  years  ago,  1739. 

Rev.  John  Rankin,  of  Ripley,  Ohio,  a 
native  of  Tennessee,  and  for  some  year's 
a  preacher  in  slave  states. 


Report  of  the  Gradual  Emancipation 
Society,  of  North  Carolina,  18-2G.  Sign- 
ed Mose|  Swain,  President,  and  Wil- 
liam Swain,  Secretary. 


TESTIMONY. 

"  By  confining  the  slaves  to  the  Southern  states,  where  crops 
are  raised  for  exportation,  and  bread  and  meat  are  purchased, 
you  doom  them  to  scarcity  and  hunger.  It  is  proposed  to  hem  in 
the  blacks  where  they  are  ill  fed." 

"  My  blood  has  frequently  run  cold  within  me,  to  think  how 
many  of  your  slaves  ^ace  not  sufficient  food  to  eat ;  they  are  scarcely 
permitted  to  pick  up  the  crumbs,  that  fall  from  their  master's  table." 

"  Thousands  of  the  slaves  are  pressed  with  the  gnawings  of 
cruel  hunger  during  their  whole  lives." 

Speaking   of  the  condition  of  slaves,  in  the  eastern   part  of 
that  state,  the  report   says, — "  The  master  puts   the  unfortunate 
wretches   upon    short   allowances,    scarcely   sufficient   for   thejp^A 
sustenance,  so  that  a  great  part  of  them  go  half  starved  inuch  of 
the  time." 


5Ir.  Asa  A.  Stone,  a  Theological 
Student,  who  resided  near  Natchez, 
Miss.,  in  1834-5. 


Thomas   Clay,  Esq.,    of  Georgia,  a 
Slaveholder. 


Mr.  Tobias  Boudinot,  St.  Albans, 
Ohio,  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  Mr.  B.  for  some  years  navi- 
gated the  Mississippi. 

President  Edwards,  the  younger,  in  a 
sermon  before  the  Conn.  Abolition  So- 
ciety, 1791. 

Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  Methodist 
Clergyman  of  Marlboro'  Mass.,  who 
lived  rive  years  in  Georgia. 

Rev.  George  Bourne,  late  editor  of 
the  Protestant  Vindicator,  N.  Y.,  who 
was  seven  years  pastor  of  a  cliurch  in 
Virginia. 


Hon.  Rober     fumbull,  a  slavehold- 
er of  Charleston,  South  Caroluia. 


f 


Mr.  Eleazar  Powell,  Chippewa, 
Beaver  Co.,  Penn.,  who  resided  in  Mis- 
sissippi, in  183G-7. 

Reuben  G.  Macy,  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  Hudson,  N.  Y.,  who 
resided  in  South  Carolina. 

Mr-  William  Leftwich,  a  native  of 
Virginia,  and  recently  of  Madison  Co., 
Alabama,  now  member,  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  Delhi,  Ohio. 


"  On  almost  every  plantation,  the  hands  suffer  more  or  less 
from  hunger  at  some  seasons  of  almost  every  year.  There  is 
s.lvja.ys  a.  good  deal  of  suffering  {rom  hunger.  On  many  planta- 
tions, and  particularly  in  Louisiana,  the  slaves  are  in  a  condition 
of  almost  utter  famishmeiit,  during  a  great  portion  of  the  year." 

"  From  various  causes  this  [the  slave's  allowance  of  food]  is 
often  not  adequate  to  the  support  of  a  laboring  man." 

"  The  slaves  down  the  Mississippi,  are  half-starved,  the  boats, 
when  they  stop  at  night,  are  constantly  boarded  by  slaves,  begging 
for  something  to  eat." 

"  The  slaves  are  supplied  with  barely  enough  to  keep  them 
from  starving." 

"  As  a  general  thing  on  the  plantations,  the  slaves  suflTcr  ex- 
tremely for  the  want  of  food." 

"  The  slaves  are  deprived  of  needful  sustenance." 

2.    kinds    OF    FOOD. 

"  The  subsistence  of  the  slaves  consists,  from  March  until 
August,  of  com  ground  into  grits,  or  meal,  made  into  what  is 
called  hominy,  or  baked  into  corn  bread.  The  other  six  months, 
they  are  fed  upon  the  sweet  potatoe.  Meat,  when  given,  is  only 
by  way  of  indulgence  or  favor." 

"  The  food  of  the  slaves  was  generally  corn  bread,  and  some, 
times  meat  or  molasses.'' 

•'  The  slaves  had  no  food  allowed  them  besides  corn,  except- 
ing at  Ciiristmas,  when  they  had  beef." 

"  On  my  uncle's  plantation,  the  food  of  the  slaves,  was  com 
pone  and  a  small  allowance  of  meat." 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


29 


WiLMAM  L.VDD,  Esq.,  of  Minot,  Me.,  president 
of  the  American  Peace  Society,  and  formerly  a 
slaveholder  of  Florida,  gives  the  following  testi- 
mony as  to  the  allowance  of  food  to  slaves. 

"  The  usual  food  of  the  slaves  was  corn,  with 
a  modicum  of  salt.  In  some  cases  the  master 
allowed  no  salt,  but  the  slaves  boOed  the  sea 
water  for  salt  in  their  little  pots.  For  about 
eight  days  near  Christmas,  i.  e.,  from  the  Satur- 
day evening  before,  to  the  Monday  evening  after 
Christmas  day,  they  were  allowed  some  meat. 
They  always  with  one  single  exception  ground 
their  corn  in  a  hand-mill,  and  cooked  their  food 
themselves. 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Rev.  D.  C.  Eastman, 
a  preacher  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
in  Fayette  county,  Ohio. 

"  In  March,  1838,  Mr.  Thomas  Larrimer,  a 
deacon  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Blooming- 
bury,  Fayette  county,  Ohio,  Mr.  G.  S.  Fullerton, 
merchant,  and  member  of  the  same  church, 
and  Mr.  William  A.  Ustick,  an  elder  of  the 
same  church,  spent  a  night  with  a  Mr.  Shep- 
herd, about  30  miles  North  of  Charleston,  S. 
^.,  on  the  Monk's  corner  road.  He  owned 
Jwe  families  of  negroes,  who,  he  said,  were 
Jed  from  the  same  meal  and  meat  tubs  as  himself, 
but  that  99  out  of  a  100  of  all  the  slaves  in  that 
county  saw  meat  but  once  a  year,  which  was  on 
Christmas  holidays." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  inhuman  experiments 
sometimes  tried  upon  slaves,  in  respect  to  the  kind 
as  well  as  the  quality  and  quantity  of  their  food,  we 
solicit  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  testimony 
of  the  late  General  Wade  Hampton,  of  South 
Carolina.  General  Hampton  was  for  some 
time  commander  in  chief  of  the  army  on  the 
Canada  frontier  during  the  last  war,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  about  three  years  since,  was 
the  largest  slaveholder  in  the  United  States.  The 
General's  testimony  is  contained  in  the  following 
extract  of  a  letter,  just  received  from  a  distin- 
guished clergymen  in  the  west,  extensively  known 
both  as  a  preacher  and  a  writer.  His  name  is 
with  the  executive  committee  of  the  American 
Anti-Slavery  Society. 

"  You  refer  in  your  letter  to  a  statement  made 
to  you  while  in  this  place,    respecting  the  late 


General  Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Carolina,  and 
task  me  to  write  out  for  you  ihe  circumstances  of 
the  case — considering  them  well  calculated  to 
illustrate  two  points  in  the  history  of  slavery  : 
1st,  That  the  habit  of  slaveholding  dreadfully 
blunts  the  feelings  toward  the  slave,  producing 
such  insensibility  that  his  sufferings  and  death 
are  regarded  with  indifference.  2d,  That  the 
slave  often  has  insufficient  food,  both  in  quantity 
and  quality. 

"  I  received  my  information  from  a  lady  in  the 
west  of  high  respectability  and  great  moral  worth, 
— but  think  it  best  to  withhold  her  name,  although 
the   statement  was  not  made  in  confidence. 

"My  informant  stated  that  she  sat  at  dinner 
once  in  company  with  General  Wade  Hampton, 
and  several  others  ;  that  the  conversation  turned 
upon  the  treatment  of  their  servants,  &c. ;  when 
the  General  undertook  to  entertain  the  company 
wi'th  the  relation  of  an  experiment  he  had  made 
in  the  feeding  of  his  slaves  on  cotton  seed.  He 
said  that  he  first  mingled  one-fourth  cotton  seed 
with  three-fourths  corn,  on  which  they  seemed  to 
thrive  tolerably  well ;  that  he  then  had  measured 
out  to  them  equal  quantities  of  each,  which  did 
not  seem  to  produce  any  important  change ;  af- 
terwards he  increased  the  quantity  of  cotton  seed 
to  three-fourths,  mingled  with  one-fourth  corn, 
and  then  he  declared,  with  an  oath,  that  '  they 
died  like  rotten  sheep  !  !'  It  is  but  justice  to  the 
lady  to  state  that  she  spoke  of  his  conduct  with 
the  utmost  indignation  ;  and  she  mentioned  also 
that  he  received  no  countenance  from  the  com- 
pany present,  but  that  all  seemed  to  look  at  each 
other  with  astonishment.  I  give  it  to  )rou  just  as  I 
received  it  from  one  who  was  present,  and  whose 
character  for  veracity  is  unquestionable. 

"  It  is  proper  to  add  that  I  had  previously 
formed  an  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Witherspoon, 
now  of  Alabama,  if  alive ;  whose  former  resi- 
dence was  in  South  Carolina ;  from  whom  I  re- 
ceived a  particular  account  of  the  manner  of 
feeding  and  treating  slaves  on  the  plantations  of 
General  Wade  Hampton,  and  others  in  the  same 
part  of  the  State  ;  and  certainly  no  one  could 
listen  to  the  recital  without  concluding  that  such 
masters  and  overseers  as  he  described  must  have 
hearts  like  the  nether  millstone.  The  cotton 
seed  experiment  I  had  heard  of  before  also,  as 
having  been  made  in  other  parts  of  the  south ; 
consequently,  I  was  prepared  to  receive  as  true 
the  above  statement,  even  if  I  had  not  been  so 
well  acquainted  with  the  high  character  of  my 
informant." 


2.    QUANTITY    OF   FOOD. 

The  legal  allowance  of  food  for  slaves  in  North  Carolina,  is  in  the  words  of  the  law,  "  a  quart 
of  corn  per  day."  See  Haywood's  Manual,  525.  The  legal  allowance  in  Louisiana  is  more,  a 
barrel  [flour  barrel]  of  corn,  (in  the  ear,)  or  its  equivalent  in  other  grain,  and  a  pint  of  salt  a  month. 
In  the  other  slave  states  the  amount  of  food    for  the  slaves  is  left  to  the  option  of  the  master. 


WITNESSES. 

Thos.  Clay,  Esq.,  of  Georgia,  a  slave 
holder,  in  his  arlrtress  before  the  Georgia 
Presbytery,  1833. 


The  Maryland  .Toumal,  and   Balti- 
more Advertiser,  May  30.  1788. 


TESTIMONY. 


"  The  quantity  allowed  by  custom  is  a  peck  of  corn  a  week  .' 

"  A  single  peck  of  corn  a  week,  or  the  like  measure  of  rice,  is 
the  ordinary  quantity  of  provision  for  a  hard-working  slave  ;  to 
which  a  small  quantity  of  meat  is  occasionally,  though  rarely, 
added." 


30 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


Georgia,  and  Elder  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  Wilksbarre,  Penn. 

Wm.  Ladd,  of  Minot,  Maine,  former- 
ly a  slaveliolder  in  Florida. 


W.  C.  Gildersleevc,  Esq.,  a  native  of         "  The  weekly  allowance  to  grown  slaves  on  this  plantation, 

where  1  was  best  acquainted,  was  one  peck  of  corn." 

"  The  usual  allowance  of  food  was  one  quart  of  corn  a  day, 
to  a  full  task  hand,  with  a  modicum  of  salt  ;  kind  masters  allow- 
ed apecA;  0/ corn  oti^ee/:;  some  masters  allowed  no  salt." 

"  The  allowance  of  provisions  for  the  slaves,  is  one  peck  of 
corn,  in  the  grain,  per  week." 

"  In  Georgia  the  planters  give  each  slave  only  one  peck  of 
their  gourd  seed  corn  per  week,  with  a  small  quantity  of  salt." 

"  The  food  of  the  slaves  was  three  pecks  of  potatos  a  week 
during  the  potato  season,  and  one  peck  of  corn,  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year." 

"  The  subsistence  of  the  slaves,  consists  of  seven  quarts  of  meal 
or  eight  quarts  of  small  rice  for  one  week  I 


Mr.  Jarvis  Brewster,  in  his  "  Exposi- 
tion of  the  tiuatment  of  slaves  in  the 
Southern  States,"  published  in  N. 
Jersey,  1815. 

Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  Methodist 
Clergyman  of  Marlboro',  Mass.,  who 
lived  five  years  in  Georgia. 

Mr.  F.  C.  Mncy,  Nantucket,  Mass., 
who  resided  in  Georgia  in  1820. 

Mr.  Nehemiah  Caulkins,  a  member  of 
the  Baptist  Church  in  Waterford, 
Conn.,  who  resided  in  North  Carolina, 
eleven  winters. 

William  Savery,  late  of  Philadelphia, 
an  eminent  Minister  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  who  travelled  extensively  in 
the  slave  states,  on  a  Religious  Visi- 
tation, speaking  of  the  subsistence  of 
the  slaves,  says,  in  liis  published 
Journal, 

The  late  John  Parrish,  of  Philadelphia, 
anotljpr  highly  re.spected  Mhiister  of 
the  isociety  of  Friends,  who  traversed 
the  South,  on  a  similar  mission,  in 
1804  and  5,  says  in  his  "  Remarks  on 
tlie  slavery  of  Blacks ;" 


"  A  peck  of  corn  is  their  (the  slaves,)  miserable  subsistence  for 
a  week." 


"  They  allow  them  but  one  peck  of  meal,  for  a  whole  week,  in 
some  of  the  Southern  states." 


Richard  Macy,  Hudson,  N.,  Y.  a 
Member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  who 
has  resided  in  Georgia. 


Rev.  C.  S.  Renshaw,  of  Quincy,  Dl., 
(the  testimony  of  a  Virginian.) 


"  Their  usual  allowance  of  food  was  one  peck  of  corn  per 
week,  which  was  dealt  out  to  them  every  first  day  of  the  week. 
They  had  nothing  allovv^ed  them  besides  the  corn,  except  one 
quarter  of  beef  at  Christmas." 

"  The  slaves  are  generally  allowanced  :  a  pint  of  corn  meal 
and  a  salt  herring  is  the  allowance,  or  in  lieu  of  the  herring  a 
"  dab"  of  fat  meat  of  about  the  same  value.  I  have  known  the 
sour  milk,  and  clauber  to  be  served  out  to  the  hands,  when  there 
was  an  abundance  of  milk  on  the  plantation.  This  is  a  luxury  not 
often  afforded." 

Testimony  of  Mr.  George  W.  Westgate,  member  of  the  Congregational  Church,  of  Quincy,  Illi- 
nois. Mr.  W.  has  been  engaged  in  the  low  country  trade  for  twelve  years,  more  than  half  of  each 
year,    principally  on  the   Mississippi,  and  its   tributary  streams  in  the  south-western  slave  states. 

"  Feeding  is  not  sufficient, — let  facts  speak.  On  the  coast,  i.  e.  Natchez  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
the  allowance  was  one  barrel  of  ears  of  corn,  and  a  pint  of  salt  per  month.  They  may  cook  this  in 
what  manner  they  please,  but  it  must  be  done  after  dark  ;  they  have  no  day  light  to  prepare  it  by. 
Some  few  planters,  but  only  a  few,  let  them  prepare  their  com  on  Saturday  afternoon.  Planters, 
overseers,  and  negroes,  have  told  me,  that  in  pinching  times,  i.  e.  when  corn  is  high,  they  did  not 
get  near  that  quantity.  In  Miss.,  I  know  some  planters  who  allowed  their  hands  three  and  a  halt 
pounds  of  meat  per  vs'eek,  when  it  was  cheap.  Many  prepare  their  corn  on  the  Sabbath,  when  they 
are  not  worked  on  that  day,  which  however  is  frequently  the  case  on  sugar  plantations.  There 
are  very  many  masters  on  "  the  coast"  who  will  not  suffer  their  slaves  to  come  to  the  boats,  be- 
cause they  steal  molasses  to  barter  for  meat;  indeed  they  generally  trade  more  or  less  with  stolen 
property.  But  it  is  impossible  to  find  out  what  and  when,  as  their  articles  of  barter  are  of  such 
trifling  importance.  They  would  often  come  on  board  our  boats  to  beg  a  bone,  and  would  tell  how 
badly  they  were  fed,  that  they  were  almost  starved  ;  many  a  time  I  have  set  up  all  night,  to  pre- 
vent them  from  stealing  something  to  eat." 

3.    ClUALITY   OF   FOOD. 

Having  ascertained  the  kind  and  quantity  of  food  allowed  to  the  slaves,  it  is  important  to  know 
something  of  its  quality,  that  we  may  judge  of  tiie  amount  of  sustenance  which  it  contains.  For, 
if  their  provisions  are  of  an  inferior  quality,  or  in  a  damaged  state,  then,  power  to  sustain  labor 
must  be  greatly  diminished. 

WITNESSES.  »  TESTIMONY. 

Thomas  Clay,  Esc),  of  Georgia,  in  an 
aiiilrc  5;^  to  tlic  Georcia  Prcsbytcrv,  1834,  ,,  mi  ■      rt  j  r    a  i        m 

epvaking  of  the  quality  of  the  corn  giveii  ^  '^^^^  >»  "/ <«»  <»  a«/«<^'  *«''«• 

to  the  slaves,  says. 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


31 


Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  Methodist 
clergyman  at  Marlboro',  Mass.  aiid  five 
years  a  resident  of  Georgia. 

The  "Western  Medical  Reformer," 
in  an  article  on  tlie  diseases  peculiar  to 
negroes,  by  a  Kentucky  pliysician,  says 
of  the  diet  of  the  slaves ; 


Professor  A.  G.  Smith ,  of  the  New 
York  Medical  College  ;  formerly  a  phy- 
sician in  Louisville,  Kentucky. 


"  The  food,   or  '  feed '  of  slaves   is  generally  of  the  poorest 
kind." 


"  Thev  live  on   a  coarse,  crude,  unwholesome  diet." 

I  have  myself  known  numerous  instances  of  large  families  of 
badly  fed  negroes  swept  off  by  a  prevailing  epidemic;  and  it  is 
well  known  to  many  intelligent  planters  in  the  south,  that  the  best 
method  of  preventing  that  horrible  malady,  Chachexia  Africana, 
is  to  feed  the  nesrroes  with  nutritious  food. 


4.  NUMBER    AND    TIME    OF   MEALS    EACH    DAY. 

In  determining  whether  or  not  the  slaves  suffer  for  want  of  food,  the  number  of  hours  intervening, 
and  the  labor  performed  between  their  meals,  and  the  number  of  meals  each  day,  should  be  taken 
into  consideration. 


WITNESSES. 

Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.,  a  laviryer  in 
Elyria,  Ohio,  and  member  of  the  Presby- 
terian churcli,  who  lived  •  in  Florida,  in 
1834,  and  1835. 

President  Edwards,  the  younger. 

Mr.  Eleazar  Powell,  Chippewa,  Bea- 
ver county,  Perm.,  who  resided  in  Mis- 
sissippi in  1836  and  1837. 

Mr.  Nehemiah  Caulkins,  Waterford, 
Conn.,  who  spent  eleven  winters  in 
North  Carolina. 

Rev.  Phineas  Smitli,  Centreville,  N. 
Y.,  who  has  lived  at  the  south  some 
years. 


Rev.  C.  S.  Renshaw,  Quincy,  Illinois, 
-the  testimony  of  a  Virginian. 


TESTIMONY. 


"  The  slaves  go  to  the  field  in  the  morning  ;  they  carry  witJi 
them  corn  meal  wet  with  water,  and  at  noon  build  a  fire  on  the 
ground  and  bake  it  in  the  ashes.  After  the  labors  of  the  day 
are  over,  they  take  their  second  meal  of  ash-cake." 

•'  The  slaves  eat  twice  during  the  day." 

"  The  slaves  received  two  meals  during  the  day.  Those  who 
have  their  food  cooked  for  them  get  their  breakfast  about  eleven 
o'clock,  and  their  other  meal  after  night." 

"  The  breakfast  of  the  slaves  was  generally  about  ten  or  eleven 
o'clock." 

"  The  slaves  have  usually  two  meals  a  day,  viz :  at  eleven 
o'clock  and  at  night." 

"  The  slaves  have  two  meals  a  day.  They  breakfast  at  from 
ten  to  eleven,  A.  M.,  and  cat  their  supper  at  from  six  to  nine  or 
ten  at  night,  as  the  season  and  crops  may  be." 


The  preceding  testimony  establishes  the  fol- 
lowing points, 

1st.  That  the  slaves  are  allowed,  in  general,  no 
meat.  This  appears  from  the  fact,  that  in  the 
only  slave  states  which  regulate  the  slaves'  rations 
bylaw,  (North  Carolina  and  Louisiana,)  the  legal 
ration  contains  7io  meat.  Besides,  the  late  Hon. 
R.  J.  TurnbuU,  one  of  the  largest  planters  in 
South  Carolina,  says  expressly,  "  meat,  when 
given,  is  only  by  the  way  of  indulgence  or  favor." 
It  is  shown  also  by  the  direct  testimony  recorded 
above,  of  slaveholders  and  others,  in  all  parts  of 
the  slaveholding  south  and  west,  that  the  gene- 
ral allowance  on  plantations  is  corn  or  meal  and 
salt  merely.  To  this  there  are  doubtless  many 
exceptions,  but  they  are  only  exceptions ;  the 
number  of  slaveholders  who  furnish  meat  for 
their  field-hands,  is  small,  in  comparison  with  the 
number  of  those  who  do  not.  The  house  slaves, 
that  is,  the  cooks,  chambermaids,  waiters,  &c., 
generally  get  some  meat  every  day  ;  the  remain- 
der bits  and  bones  of  their  masters'  tables.  But 
that  the  great  body  of  the  slaves,  those  that 
compose  the  field  gangs,  whose  labor  and  expo- 
sure, and  consequent  exhaustion,  are  vastly  greater 


than  those  of  house  slaves,  toiling  as  they  do  from 
day  light  till  dark,  in  the  fogs  of  the  early  morn- 
ing, under  the  scorchings  of  mid- day,  and  amid 
the  damps  of  evening,  are  in  general  provided 
with  no  meat,  is  abundantly  established  by  the 
preceding  testimony. 

Now  we  do  not  say  that  meat  is  necessary  to 
sustain  men  under  hard  and  long  continued  labor, 
nor  that  it  is  not.  This  is  not  a  treatise  on  dietetics ; 
but  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  the  medical  facul- 
ty  in  this  country,  with  very  few  exceptions,  do 
most  strenuously  insist  that  it  is  necessary ;  and 
that  working  men  in  all  parts  of  the  country  do 
believe  that  meat  is  indispensable  to  sustain  them, 
even  those  who  work  within  doors,  and  only  ten 
hours  a  day,  every  one  knows.  Further,  it  is  no- 
torious, that  the  slaveholders  themselves  believe 
the  daily  use  of  meat  to  be  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  comfort,  not  merely  of  those  who  labor, 
but  of  those  who  are  idle,  is  proved  by  the  fact 
of  meat  being  a  part  of  the  daily  ration  of  food 
provided  for  convicts  in  the  prisons,  in  every  one 
of  the  slave  states,  except  in  those  rare  cases 
where  meat  is  expressly  prohibited,  and  the  con- 
vict is,  by  wai/  of  extra  punishment  confined  to 


32 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


bread  and  water ;  lie  is  occasionally,  and  for  a  lit- 
tle time  only,  confined  to  bread  and  water;  that 
is,  to  the  ordinary  diet  of  slaves,  with  this  differ- 
ence in  favor  of  the  convict :  his  bread  is  made  for 
him,  whereas  the  slave  is  forced  to  pound  or  grind 
his  own  corn  and  make  his  own  bread,  when  ex- 
hausted with  toil. 

The  preccdint^  testimony  shows  also,  that 
vegetables  form  generally  no  part  of  the  slaves' 
allowance.  The  sole  food  of  the  majority  is  corn  : 
at  every  meal — from  day  to  day — from  week  to 
week — from  month  to  month,  corn.  In  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  the  sweet  pota- 
to is,  to  a  considerable  extent,  substituted  for 
corn  during  a  part  of  the  year. 

2d,  The  preceding  testimony  proves  conclu- 
Eively,  that  the  quantity  of  food  generally  allow- 
ed to  a  full-grown  field-hand,  is  a  peck  of  corn  a 
week,  or  a  fraction  over  a  quart  and  a  gill  of 
corn  a  day.  The  legal  ration  of  North  Carolina 
is  less — in  Louisiana  it  is  more.  Of  the  slave- 
holders and  other  witnesses,  who  give  the  fore- 
going testimony,  the  reader  will  perceive  that  no 
one  testifies  to  a  larger  allowance  of  com  than  a 
peck  for  a  week  ;  though  a  number  testify,  that 
within  the  circle  of  their  knowledge,  seven  quarts 
was  the  usual  allowance.  Frequently  a  small 
quantity  of  meat  is  added ;  but  this,  as  has  al- 
ready been  shown,  is  not  the  general  rule  for 
feld.hands.  We  may  add,  also,  that  in  the  sea- 
son of  "  pumpkins,"  "  cimblins,"  "  cabbages," 
"  greens,"  &c.,  the  slaves  on  small  plantations 
are,  to  some  extent,  furnished  with  those  articles. 

Now,  without  entering  upon  the  vexed  ques- 
tion of  how  much  food  is  necessary  to  sustain  the 
human  system,  under  severe  toil  and  exposure, 
and  without  giving  the  opinions  of  physiologists 
as  to  the  insufficiency  or  sufficiency  of  the  slaves' 
allowance,  we  affirm  that  all  civilized  nations 
have,  in  all  ages,  and  in  the  most  emphatic  man- 
ner, declared,  tjiat  eight  quarts  of  corn  a  week, 
(the  usual  allowance  of  our  slaves,)  is  utterly  in- 
sufficient to  sustain  the  human  body,  under  such 
toil  and  exposure  as  that  to  which  the  slaves  are 
subjected. 

To  show  this  fully,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make 
some  estimates,  and  present  some  statistics. 
And  first,  the  northern  reader  must  bear  in  mind, 
that  the  com  furnished  to  the  slaves  at  the  south, 
is  almost  invariably  the  white  gourd  seed  corn, 
and  tliat  a  quart  of  this  kind  of  corn  weighs  five 
or  six  ounces  less  than  a  quart  of  "  flint  com," 
the  kind  generally  raised  in  the  northern  and 
eastern  states ;  consequently  a  peek  of  the  com 
generally  given  to  the  slaves,  would  be  only 
equivalent  to  a  fraction  more  than  six  quarts  and 
a  pint  of  the  corn  commonly  raised  in  the  New 
England  States,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  &,c. 
N^ow,  what  would  be  said  of  t^«  northern  capital- 


ist, who  should  allow  his  laborers  but  six  quart, 
and  five  gills  of  corn  for  a  week's  provisions  ? 

Further,  it  appears  in  evidence,  that  the  com 
given  to  the  slaves  is  often  defective.  This,  the 
reader  will  recollect,  is  the  voluntary  testimony 
of  Thomas  Clay,  Esq.,  the  Georgia  planter,  whose 
testimony  is  given  above.  When  tliis  is  the 
case,  the  amount  of  actual  nutriment  contained 
in  a  peck  of  the  "  gourd  seed,"  may  not  be  more 
than  in  five,  or  four,  or  even  three  quarts  of 
"  flint  corn." 

As  a  quart  of  southern  corn  weighs  at  least 
five  ounces  less  than  a  quart  of  northern  com,  it 
requires  little  arithmetic  to  perceive;  that  the 
daily  allowance  of  the  slave  fed  upon  that  kind 
of  corn,  would  contain  about  one  third  of  a  pound 
less  nutriment  than  though  his  daily  ration  were 
the  same  quantity  of  northem  com,  which  would 
amount,  in  a  year,  to  more  than  a  hundred  and 
twenty  pounds  of  human  sustenance !  which 
would  furnish  the  slave  with  his  full  allowance 
of  a  peck  of  com  a  week  for  two  months  !  It  is 
unnecessary  to  add,  that  this  difference  in  the 
weight  of  the  two  kinds  of  com,  is  an  item  too 
important  to  be  overlooked.  As  one  quart  of  the 
southern  com  weighs  one  pound  and  eleven-six- 
teenths of  a  pound,  it  follows  that  it  would  be 
about  one  pound  and  six-eighths  of  a  pound.  We 
now  solicit  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  fol- 
lowing unanimous  testimony,  of  the  civilized 
world,  to  the  utter  insufficiency  of  this  amount  of 
food  to  sustain  human  beings  under  labor.  This 
testimony  is  to  be  found  in  the  laws  of  all  civil- 
ized nations,  which  regulate  the  rations  of  sol 
diers  and  sailors,  disbursements  made  by  govern, 
ments  for  the  support  of  citizens  in  times  of  pub 
lie  calamit}',  the  allowance  to  convicts  in  prisons 
&c.     We  will  begin  with  the  United  States. 

The  daily  ration  for  each  United  States'  soldier 
established  by  act  of  Congress,  May  30,  1796 
was  the  following  :  one  pound  of  beef,  one  pount 
of  bread,  half  a  gill  of  spirits  ;  and  at  the  rate  ol 
one  quart  of  salt,  two  quarts  of  vinegar,  two 
pounds  of  soap,  and  one  pound  of  candles  U 
every  hundred  rations.  To  those  soldiers  "  wh( 
were  on  the  frontiers,"  (where  the  labor  and  ex 
posure  were  greater,)  the  ration  was  one  pouno 
two  ounces  of  beef  and  one  pound  two  ounces  of 
bread.     Laws  U.  S.  vol.  3d,  sec.  10,  p.  431. 

After  an  experiment  of  two  years,  the  preccd- 
ing  ration  being  found  insufficient,  it  was  in- 
creased, by  act  of  Congress,  July  16,  1798,  and 
was  as  follows :  beef  one  pound  and  a  quarter, 
bread  one  pound  two  ounces  ;  salt  two  quarts, 
vinegar  four  quarts,  soap  four  pounds,  and  can- 
dies  one  and  a  half  pounds  to  the  hundred  ra 
tions.  The  preceding  allowance  was  afterwards 
still  further  increased. 

The  pesent  daily  ration  for  the  United  States' 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — ^Food. 


33 


soldiers,  is,  as  we  learn  from  an  advertisement  of 
Captain  Fulton,  of  the  United  States'  army,  in  a 
late  number  of  the  Riehmond  (Va.)  Enquirer,  as 
follows :  one  and  a  quarter  pounds  of  beef,  one 
and  three-sixteenths  pounds  of  bread  ;  and  at  the 
rate  of  eight  quarts  of  beans,  eight  pounds  of 
sugar,  four  pounds  of  coffee,  two  quarts  of  salt, 
four  pounds  of  candles,  and  four  pounds  of  soap, 
to  every  hundred  rations. 

We. have  before  us  the  daily  rations  provided 
for  the  emigrating  Ottawa  Indians,  two  years 
since,  and  for  the  emigrating  Cherokees  last  fall. 
They  were  the  same — one  pound  of  fresh  beef, 
one  pound  of  flour,  &-C. 

The  daily  ration  for  the  United  States'  navy, 
is  fourteen  ounces  of  bread,  half  a  pound  of  beef, 
six  ounces  of  pork,  three  ounces  of  rice,  three 
ounces  of  peas,  one  ounce  of  cheese,  one  ounce 
of  sugar,  half  an  ounce  of  tea,  one-third  of  a 
gill  molasses. 

The  daily  ration  in  the  British  army  is  one  and 
a  quarter  pounds  of  beef,  one  pound  of  bread,  &c. 

The  daily  ration  in  the  French  army  is  one 
pound  of  beef,  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread, 
one  pint  of  wine,  &c. 

The  common  daily  ration  for  foot  soldiers  on 
the  continent,  is  one  pound  of  meat,  and  one  and 
a  half  pounds  of  bread. 

The  sea  ration  among  the  Portuguese,  has  be- 
come the  usual  ration  in  the  navies  of  European 
powers  generally.  It  is  as  follows  :  "  one  and  a 
half  pounds  of  biscuit,  one  pound  of  salt  meat, 
one  pint  of  wine,  with  some  dried  fish  and 
onions." 

Prison  Rations. — Before  giving  the  usual 
daily  rations  of  food  allowed  to  convicts,  in  the 
principal  prisons  in  the  United  States,  we  will 
quote  the  testimony  of  the  "  American  Prison 
Discipline  Society,"  which  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  common  allowance  of  food  in  the  peni- 
tentiaries, is  equivalent   to   one  pound  of  meat, 

ONE  POUND  of  bread,  AND  ONE  POUND  OF  VEGETA- 
BLES PER  DAY.  It  varies  a  little  from  this  in  some 
of  them,  but  it  is  generally  equivalent  to  it." 
First  Report  of  American  Prison  Discipline  So- 
ciety, page  13. 

The  daily  ration  of  food  to  each  convict,  in  the 
principal  prisons  in  this  country,  is  as  follows : 

In  the  New  Hampshire  State  Prison,  one  and 
a  quarter  pounds  of  meal,  and  fourteen  ounces 
of  beef,  for  breakfast  and  dinner ;  and  for  sup- 
per, a  soup  or  porridge  of  potatos  and  beans,  or 
peas,  the  quantity  not  limited. 

In  the  Vermont  prison,  the  convicts  are  al- 
lowed to  eat  as  much  as  they  wish. 

In  the  Massachusetts'  penitentiary,  one  and  a 
half  pounds  of  bread,  fourteen  ounces  of  meat, 
half  a  pint  of  potatos,  and  one  gill  of  molasses, 
or  one  pint  of  milk. 


In  the  Connecticut  State  Prison,  one  pound 
of  beef,  one  pound  of  bread,  two  and  a  half 
pounds  of  potatos,  half  a  gill  of  molasses,  with 
salt,  pepper,  and  vinegar. 

In  the  New  York  State  Prison,  at  Auburn, 
one  pound  of  beef,  twenty-two  ounces  of  floui 
and  meal,  half  a  gill  of  molasses ;  with  two 
quarts  of  rye,  four  quarts  of  salt,  two  quarts  of 
vinegar,  one  and  a  half  ounces  of  pepper,  and 
two  and  a  half  bushels  of  potatos  to  every  hun- 
dred rations. 

In  the  New  York  State  Prison  at  Sing  Sing, 
one  pound  of  beef,  eighteen  ounces  of  flour  and 
meal,  besides  potatos,  rye  coffee,  and  molasses. 

In  the  New  York  City  Prison,  one  pound  of 
beef,  one  pound  of  flour  ;  and  three  pecks  of  po- 
tatos to  every  hundred  rations,  with  other  small 
articles. 

In  the  New  Jersey  State  Prison,  one  pound 
of  bread,  half  a  pound  of  beef,  with  potatos  and 
cabbage,  (quantity  not  specified,)  one  gill  of 
molasses,  and  a  bowl  of  mush  for  supper. 

In  the  late  Walnut  Street  Prison,  Philadel- 
phia, one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread  and  meal, 
half  a  pound  of  beef,  one  pint  of  potatos,  one 
gill  of  molasses,  and  half  a  gill  of  rye,  for  coffee. 

In  the  Baltimore  prison,  we  believe  the  ration 
is  the  same  with  the  preceding. 

In  the  Pennsylvania  Eastern  Penitentiary,  one 
pound  of  bread  and  one  pint  of  coffee  for  break- 
fast, one  pint  of  meat  soup,  with  potatos  without 
limit,  for  dinner,  and  mush  and  molasses  for  sup- 
per. 

In  the  Penitentiary  for  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, Washington  city,  one  pound  of  beef,  twelve 
ounces  of  Indian  meal,  ten  ounces  of  wheat  flour, 
half  a  gill  of  molasses ;  with  two  quarts  of  rye, 
four  quarts  of  salt,  four  quarts  of  vinegar,  and 
two  and  a  half  bushels  of  potatos  to  every  hun- 
dred rations. 

Rations  in  English  Prisons. — The  daily  ra- 
tion of  food  in  the  Bedfordshire  Penitentiary,  is 
two  pounds  of  bread;  and  if  at  hard  labor,  a 
quart  of  soup  for  dinner. 

In  the  Cambridge  County  House  of  Correction, 
three  pounds  of  bread,  and  one  pint  of  beer. 

In  the  Millbank  General  Penitentiary,  one  and 
a  half  pounds  of  bread,  one  pound  of  potatos,  six 
ounces  of  beef,  with  half  a  pint  of  broth  there- 
from. 

In  the  Gloucestershire  Penitentiary,  one  and  a 
half  pounds  of  bread,  three-fourths  of  a  pint  of 
peas,  made  into  soup,  with  beef,  quantity  not 
stated.  Also  gruel,  made  of  vegetables,  quantity 
not  stated,  and  one  and  a  half  ounces  of  oatmeal 
mixed  with  it. 

In  the  Leicestershire  House  of  Correction,  two 
pounds  of  bread,  and  three  pints  of  gruel ;  and 
when  at  hard  labor,  one  pint  of  milk  in  addition. 


M 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Food. 


and  twice  a  week  a  pint  of  meat  soup  at  dinner, 
instead  of  gruel. 

In  the  Buxton  House  of  Correction,  one  and  a 
half  pounds  of  bread,  one  and  a  half  pints  of 
gruel,  one  and  a  half  pints  of  soup,  four-fifths  of 
a  pound  of  potatos,  and  two-sevenths  of  an  ounce 
of  beef. 

Notwithstanding  the  preceding  daily  ration  in 
the  Buxton  Prison  is  about  double  the  usual 
daily  allowance  of  our  slaves,  yet  the  visiting 
physicians  decided,  that  for  those  prisoners  v.'ho 
were  required  to  work  the  tread.mill,  it  was  en- 
tirely insufficient.  This  question  was  considered 
at  length,  and  publicly  discussed  at  the  sessions 
of  tjic  Surry  magistrates,  with  the  benefit  of 
medical  advice ;  which  resulted  in  "  large  addi. 
tions"  to  the  rations  of  those  who  worked  on  the 
tread.mill.  See  London  Morning  Chronicle, 
Jan.  13,  1830. 

To  the  preceding  we  add  the  ration  of  the  Ro- 
man slaves.  The  monthly  allowance  of  food  to 
slaves  in  Rome  was  called  "  Dimensum."  The 
"  Dimensum"  was  an  allowance  of  wheat  or 
of  other  grain,  which  consisted  of  five  modii  a 
month  to  each  slave  Ainsworth,  in  his  Latin 
Dictionary  estimates  the  moditis,  when  used  for 
the  measurement  of  grain,  at  a  peck  and  a  half 
our  measure,  which  would  make  the  Roman 
slave':?  allowance  two  quarts  of  grain  a  day,  just 
double  the  allowance  provided  for  the  slave  by 
law  in  North  Carolina,  and  six  quarts  more  per 
week  than  the  ordinary  allowance  of  slaves  in 
the  slave  states  generallj',  as  already  established 
by  the  testimony  of  slaveholders  themselves. 
But  it  roust  by  no  means  be  overlooked  that  this 
'•  dimensum,"  or  monthly  allowance,  was  far  from 
being  the  sole  allowance  of  food  to  Roman  slaves. 
In  addition  to  this,  they  had  a  stated  daily  allow- 
ance {diariuni)  besides  a  monthly  allowance  of 
money,  amounting  to  about  a  cent  a  day. 

Now  without  further  trencliing  on  the  reader's 
time,  we  add,  compare  the  preceding  daily  allow, 
ances  of  food  to  soldiers  and  sailors  in  this  and 
other  countries ;  to  convicts  in  this  and  other 
countries ;  to  bodies  of  emigrants  rationed  at 
public  expense  ;  and  finally,  with  the  fixed  al- 
lowance given  to  Roman  slaves,  and  we  find  the 
states  of  this  Union,  the  slave  states  as  well  as 
the  free,  the  United  States'  government,  the  dif- 
ferent European  governments,  the  old  Roman 
empire,  in  fine,  we  may  add,  the  world,  ancient 
and  modern,  uniting  in  the  testimony  that  to 
furnish  men  at  hard  labor  from  daylight  till  dark 
v/ith  but  1^  lbs.  of  corn  per  day,  their  sole  suste- 
nance, is    to    MURBER   TUEM   BY  PIECE-MEAL.       TllC 

reader  will  perceive  by  examining  the  preceding 
statistics  that  the  average  daily  ration  throughout 
thhs  country  and  Europe  exceeds  the  usual  slave's 
allowance  at  least  a  pound  aday;  also  that  one- 


third  of  this  ration  for  soldiers  and  convicts  in 
the  Unitei  States,  and  for  soldiers  and  sailors  in 
Europe,  is  meat,  generally  beef ;  whereas  the  al- 
lowance of  the  mass  of  our  slaves  is  corn,  only- 
Further,  the  convicts  in  our  prisons  are  sheltered 
from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  and  from  the  damps  of 
the  early  morning  and  evening,  from  cold,  rain, 
&c. ; .  whereas,  the  great  body  of  the  slaves  are 
exposed  to  all  of  these,  in  their  season,  from  day- 
light till  dark ;  besides  this,  they  labor  more 
hours  in  the  day  than  convicts,  as  will  be  shown 
under  another  head,  and  are  obliged  to  prepare 
and  cook  their  own  food  after  they  have  finished 
the  labor  of  the  day,  while  the  convicts  have 
theirs  prepared  for  them.  These,  with  other  cir- 
cumstances, necessarily  make  larger  and  longer 
draughts  upon  the  strength  of  the  slave,  produce 
consequently  greater  exhaustion,  and  demand  a 
larger  amount  of  food  to  restore  and  sustain  the 
laborer  than  is  required  by  the  convict  in  hia  ' 
briefer,  less  exposed,  and  less  exliausting  toils. 

That  the  slaveholders  themselves  regard  the 
usual  allowance  of  food  to  slaves  as  insufficient, 
both  in  kind  and  quantity,  for  hard-working  men, 
is  shown  by  the  fact,  that  in  all  the  slave  states, 
we  believe  without  exception,  white  convicts  at 
hard  labor,  have  a  much  larger  allowance  of  food 
than  the  usual  one  of  slaves  ;  and  generally  more 
than  one  third  of  this  daily  allowance  is  meat. 
This  conviction  of  slaveholders  shows  itself  in 
various  forms.  When  persons  wish  to  hire  slaves 
to  labor  on  public  works,  in  addition  to  the  m. 
ducement  of  high  wages  held  out  to  masters  to 
liire  out  their  slaves,  the  contractors  pledge  them- 
selves that  a  certain  amount  of  food  shall  be 
given  the  slaves,  taking  care  to  specify  a  larger 
amount  than  the  usual  allowance,  and  a  part  of 
it  meat. 

The  following  advertisement  is  an  illustration. 
We  copy  it  from  the  "Daily  Georgian,"  Savan- 
nah, Dec.  14, 1838. 

NEGROES  WANTED. 

The  Contractors  upon  the  Brunswick  and  Al 
atamaha  Canal  are  desirous  to  hire  a  number  of 
prime  Negro  Men,  from  the  1st  October  next,  for 
fifteen  months,  until  the  1st  January,  1840.  They 
will  pay  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  dollars  per  month 
for  each  prime  hand. 

These  negroes  will  be  employed  in  the  exca- 
vation of  the  Canal.  They  will  be  provided  with 
three  and  a  half  pounds  of  pork  or  baron,  and 
ten  quarts  of  gourd  seed  corn  per  ircek,  lodged  in 
comfortable  shantees,  and  attended  constantly  by 
a  skilful  physician. 

J.    H.    CoUPF.R, 

p.  M.  Nightingale. 

But  we  have  direct  testimony  to  this  point. 
The  late  Hon.  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline  Co.  Vir. 
ginia,  for  many  years  Senator  in  Congress,  and 
for  many  years  president  of  the  Agricultural  So- 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Labor. 


35 


ciety  of  the  State,  says  in  his  "Agricultural  Es- 
Kays,"  No.  30,   page  97,  "  Bread  alone   ought 

NEVER  TO  BE  CONSIDERED  A  SUFFICIENT  DIET  FOR 
SLAVES  EXCEPT  AS  A  PUNISHMENT."     He  urgcs  Upon 

the  planters  of  Virginia  to  give  their  slaves,  in  ad- 
dition to  bread,  "  salt  meat  and  vegetables,"  and 
adds,  "  we  shall  be  astonished  to  discover  upon 
trial,  that  this  great  comfort  to  them  is  a  profit 
to  the  master." 

The  Managers  of  the  American  Prison  Disci- 
pline Society,  in  their  third  Report,  page  58,  say, 
"  In  the  Penitentiaries  generally,  in  the  United 
States,  the  animal  food  is  equal  to  one  pound  of 
meat  per  day  for  cacli  convict." 

Most  of  tiie  actual  suiFering  from  hunger  on  tlie 
part  of  the  slaves,  is  m  the  sugar  and  cotton-grow- 
ing region,  where  the  crops  are  exported  and  the 
corn  generally  purchased  from  the  upper  country. 
Where  this  is  the  cafee  there  cannot  but  be  suffer- 
ing.    The  contingencies  of  bad  crops,  difficult 


transportation,  high  prices,  &c.  &c.,  naturally 
occasion  short  and  often  precarious  allowances. 
The  following  extract  from  a  New  Orleans  paper 
of  April  26,  1837,  affords  an  illustration.  The 
writer  in  describing  the  effects  of  the  tnoney 
pressure  in  Mississippi,  says  : 

"  They,  (the  planters,)  are  now  left  without 
provisions  and  the  means  of  living  and  using  their 
industry,  for  the  present  year.  In  this  dilemma, 
planters  whose  crops  have  been  from  100  to  700 
bales,  find  themselves  forced  to  sacrifice  many  of 
their  slaves  in  order  to  get  the  common  necessaries 
of  life  for  the  support  of  themselves  and  the  rest  of 
their  negroes.  In  many  places,  heavy  planters 
compel  their  slaves  to  fish  for  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence,  rather  than  sell  them  at  such  ruinous 
rates.  There  are  at  this  moment  THOUSANDS 
OF  SLAVES  in  Mississippi,  that  KNOW  NOT 
WHERE  THE  NEXT  MORSEL  IS  TO 
COME  FROM.  The  master  ?nvst  be  ruined  to 
save  the  wretches  from  being  STARVED  " 


II.  LABOR. 

THE    SLAVES    ARE    OVERWORKED. 

This  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  number  of  hours  that  the  slaves  are  obliged  to  be  in  the  field. 
But  before  furnishing  testimony  as  to  their  hours  of  labor  and  rest,  we  will  present  the  express  decla- 
rations of  slaveholders  and  others,  that  the  slaves  are  severely  driven  in  the  field. 


WITNESSES. 


The  Senate  and  House  of  Represent- 
atives of  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 


History    of   Carolina. — ^Vol.  i,  page 
130. 


Hon.  Alexander  Smyth,  a  slavehold- 
er, and  member  of  Congress  from  Vir- 
ginia, m  his  speech  on  tlie  "  Missouri 
<luestion,"  Jan.  28, 1820. 


"Travels  in  Louisiana,"  translated 
from  the  Frencli  by  John  Davies,  Elsq. 
—Page  81. 


The  Western  Review,  No.  2, — article 
"  Agriculture  of  Louisiana." 

W.  C  Gildersleeve,  Esq.,  a  native  of 
Georgia,  elder  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  Wilkesbarre,  Penn. 

Mr.  Asa  A.  Stone,  a  theological  stu- 
dent, near  Natchez,  Miss.,  in  1834  and 
1835. 


Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  of 
Elyria,  Ohio,  who  lived  in  Florida  in 
1834  and  1835. 


TESTIMONY. 

"  Many  owners  of  slaves,  and  others  who  have  the  manage-- 
ment  of  slaves,  do  confine  them  so  closely  at  hard  labor  that  they 
have  not  sufficient  time  for  natural  rest. — See  2  Brevard's  Di- 
gest of  the  Laws  of  South  Carolina,  243." 

^^  So  laborious  is  the  task  of  raising,  beating,  and  cleaning 
rice,  that  had  it  been  possible  to  obtain  European  servants  in 
sufficient  numbers,  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  must  have 

fERISHED." 

"  Is  it  not  obvious  that  the  way  to  render  their  situation  7nore 
comfortable,  is  to  allow  them  to  be  taken  where  there  is  not  tho 
same  motive  to  force  the  slave  to  incessant  toil  that  there  is  in 
the  country  where  cotton,  sugar,  and  tobacco  are  raised  for  ex- 
portation. It  is  proposed  to  hem  in  the  blacks  where  they  are 
HARD  WORKED,  that  they  may  be  rendered  unproductive  and  the 
race  be  prevented  from  increasing.  *  *  *  The  proposed 
measure  would  be  extreme  cruelty  to  the  blacks.  *  *  * 
You  would     *     *     *     doom  them  to  hard  labor." 

"  At  the  rolling  of  sugars,  an  interval  of  from  two  to  three 
months,  they  work  both  night  and  day.  Abridged  of  their  sleep, 
they  scarce  retire  to  rest  during  the  whole  period."  ^ 

"  The  work  is  admitted  to  be  severe  for  the  hands,  (slavesj) 
requiring  when  the  process  is  commenced  to  be  pushed  night 
and  dayP 

"  Overworked  I  know  they  (the  slaves)  are." 

"  Every  body  here  knows  overdriving  to  be  one  of  the  most 
common  occurrences,  the  planters  do  not  deny  it,  except,  per- 
haps, to  northerners." 

"  During  the  cotton-picking  season  they  usually  labor  in  the 
field  during  the  whole  of  the  daylight,  and  then  spend  a  good 
part  of  the  night  in  ginning  and  baling.  The  labor  required  is 
very  frequently  excessive,  and  speedily  impairs  the  constitution." 


36 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Labor. 


WITNESSES. 

Hou.  R.  J.  Tumbull  of  South  Caroli- 
na, a  slaveholder,  speaking  of  tJie  har- 
vesting of  cuttou,  says : 


TESTIMONY. 

'All  the  pregnant  women  even,  on  the  plantation,  and  weak 
and  sickly  negroes  incapable  of  other  labor,  are  then  in  requi. 
sition." 


Asa  A  Stone,  theological  studnnt,  a 
classical  teacher  near  Natchez,  Miss., 
IKJ5. 


Mr.  Cornelius  Johnson,  of  Farniing- 
lon,  Ohio,  who  lived  in  Mississippi  a 
part  of  1837  and  1838. 


W.  C.  Gildersleeve,  Esq.,  WUkcs- 
burre,  Peuu.,  a  native  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  William  Loftwich,  a  native  of 
Virginia  and  son  of  a  slaveholder — he 
has  recently  removed  to  DeUii,  Hamil- 
ton county  Ohio. 

Mr.  Neheniiah  Caulkins,  Waterford, 
Conn.,  a  resident  in  North  Carolina 
eleven  winters. 

Mr.  Eleazar  Powel,  Chippewa,  Bea- 
ver county,  I'enn.,  who  lived  in  Missiih 
^ippi  in  1836  and  1837. 

Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  in  Ely- 
ria,  Ohio,  who  resided  in  Florida  in 
1834  and  1835. 


"Travels  in  Louisiana,"  page  87 


Mr  Henry  E.  Knapp,  member  of  a 
Cluistian  church  in  Fannington,  Ohio, 
who  lived  in  MiJdissippi  in  1S37  and 
«838. 


A  New  Orleans  paper,  dated  March  23,  1826, 
says  :  "  To  judge  from  the  activity  reigning  in 
the  cotton  presses  of  the  suburbs  of  St.  Mary, 
and  the  late  hours  during  which  their  slaves 
work,  the  cotton  trade  was  never  more  brisk." 

Mr.  George  W.  Westgate,  a  member  of  the 
Congregational  Church  at  Quincy,  Illinois,  who 
lived  in  the  south  western  slave  states  a  num- 
ber of  years,  says,  "  The  slaves  are  driven  to  the 
field  in  the  morning  about  four  o'clock,  the  gene- 
ral calculation  is  to  get  them  at  work  by  day- 
light ;  the  time  for  breakfast  is  between  nine  and 
ton  o'clock,  this  meal  is  sometimes  eaten  '  hite 
and  work,'  others  allow  fifteen  minutes,  and  this 
is  the  only  rest  the  slave  has  while  in  the  field. 
I  have  never  known  a  case  of  stopping  an  liour, 
in  Louisiana  ;  in  Mississippi  the  rule  is  milder, 
though  entirely  subject  to  the  will  of  the  master. 
On  cotton  plantations,  in  cotton  picking  time,  that 
is  from  October  to  Christmas,  each  hand  has  a 
certain  quantity  to  pick,  and  is  Hogged  if  his  task 
is  not  accomplished  ;  their  tasks  are  such  as  to 
keep  them  all  the  while  busy." 

Tlie  preccf^ing  testimony  imder  this  head  has 
f?ole  reference  to  the  actual  labor  of  the  slaves  in 
the  field.  In  order  to  determine  how  many  hours 
are  left  for  sleep,  wc  must  take  into  the  account,' 
the  time  spent  m  going  to  and  from  the  field, 


HOURS  OF  LABOR  AND  REST. 

"  It  is  a  general  rule  on  all  regular  plantations,  that  the  slaves 
be  in  the  field  as  soon  as  it  is  light  enough  for  them  to  see  to 
work,  and  rcmam  there  until  it  is  so  dark  that  they  cannot  see." 

"  It  is  the  common  rule  for  the  slaves  to  be  kept  at  work  fif- 
teen hours  in  the  day,  and  in  the  time  of  picking  cotton  a  certain 
number  of  pounds  is  required  of  each.  If  this  amount  is  not 
brought  in  at  night,  the  slave  is  whipped,  and  the  number  of 
pounds  lacking  is  added  to  the  next  day's  job ;  this  com-se  is  often 
repeated  from  day  to  day." 

"  It  was  customary  for  the  overseers  to  call  out  the  gangs 
long  before  day,  say  three  o'clock,  in  the  winter,  while  dressing 
out  the  crops ;  such  work  as  could  be  done  by  fire  light  (pitch 
pine  was  abundant,)  was  provided." 

"  From  dawn  till  dark,  the  slaves  are  required  to  bend  to  their 
work." 

"  The  slaves  are  obliged  to  work  from  daylight  till  dark,  as 
long  as  they  can  see." 

"  The  slaves  had  to  cook  and  eat  their  breakfast  a^d  be  in  tlic 
field  by   daylight,  and  continue  there  till  dark." 

"  The  slaves  commence  labor  by  daylight  in  the  morning,  and 
do  not  leave  the  field  till  dark  in  the  evening." 

"  Both  in  summer  and  winter  the  slave  must  he  in  the  field  hy 
the  first  dawning  of  day." 

"  The  slaves  were  made  to  work,  from  as  soon  as  they  could 
see  in  tlic  morning,  till  as  late  as  they  could  see  at  night.  Some- 
times they  were  made  to  work  till  nine  o'clock  at  night,  in  such 
work  as  they  could  do,  as  burning  cotton  stalks,  &c." 

which  is  often  at  a  distance  of  one,  two  and 
sometimes  three  miles ;  also  the  time  necessary 
for  pounding,  or  grinding  their  com,  and  prepar- 
ing, over  night,  tlieir  food  for  the  next  day  ;  also 
the  preparation  of  tools,  getting  fuel  and  prepar- 
ing it,  making  fires  and  cooking  their  suppers,  if 
tlie)'  have  any,  the  occasional  mending  and  wasli- 
ing  of  their  clothes,  &c.  Besides  this,  as  every 
one  knows  who  has  lived  on  a  southern  planta- 
tion, many  little  errands  and  chores  are  to  be 
done  for  their  masters  and  mistresses,  old  and 
young,  which  have  accumulated  during  the  day 
and  been  kept  in  reserve  till  the  sdavcs  return 
from  the  field  at  night.  To  this  we  may  add  that 
the  slaves  are  social  beings,  and  that  dm-ing  the 
day,  silence  is  generally  enforced  by  the  whip  of 
the  overseer  or  driver.*  When  they  return  at 
night,  their  pent  up  social  feelings  will  seek  vent, 
it  is  a  law  of  nature,  and  though  the  body  may 
be  greatly  worn  with  toil,  this  law  caimot  bo 
wholly  stifled.  Sharers  of  the  same  woes,  they 
arc  drawn  together  by  strong  afliniticis  and  seek 


.  *  We  do  not  mean  that  they  are  not  suffered  to  speuk, 
but,  tliat,  as  conversation  would  be  a  hindrance  to  labor, 
tiiey  are  generally  permitted  to  indulge  in  it  but  little. 


ivatlons  of  the  Slaves — Labor. 


37 


the  society  and  sympathy  of  their  fellows  ;  even 
"  tired  nature"  will  joyfully  forego  for  a  time 
needful  rest,  to  minister  to  a  want  of  its  being 
equally  permanent  and  imperative  as  the  want  of 
sleep,  and  as  much  more  profound,  as  the  yearn- 
ings of  the  higher  nature  sur]3ass  the  instincts  of 
its  animal  appendage. 

All  these  things  make  drafts  upon  time.  To 
show  how  much  of  the  slave's  time,  which  is  ab- 
solutely  indispensable  for  rest  and  sleep,  is  neces- 
sarily spent  in  various  labors  after  his  return  from 
tlie  field  at  night,  we  subjoin  a  few  testimonies. 

Mr.  CoRNF.Lius  Johnson,  Farmington,  Ohio, 
who  lived  in  Mississippi  in  the  years  1837  and  38, 
says : 

"  On  all  the  plantations  where  I  was  acquaint- 
ed, the  slaves  were  kept  in  the  field  till  dark  ;  af- 
ter wliich,  those  who  had  to  grind  their  own  corn, 
had  that  to  attend  to,  get  their  supper,  attend  to 
other  family  affairs  of  their  own  and  of  their  mas- 
ter, such  as  bringing  water,  washing  clothes,  »fcc. 
&c.,  and  be  in  tlie  field  as  soon  as  it  was  suffi- 
ciently light  to  commence  v/ork  in  the  morning." 

Mr.  George  W.  Westgate,  of  Quincy,  Illinois, 
who  has  sjfent  several  years  in  the  south  western 
slave  states,  says : 

"  Their  time,  after  full  dark  until  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning  is  their  own ;  this  fact  alone 
would  seem  to  say  they  have  sufficient  rest,  but 
there  are  other  things  to  be  considered ;  much  of 
their  making,  mending  and  washing  of  clothes, 
preparing  and  cooking  food,  hauling  and  chop- 
ping wood,  fixing  and  preparing  tools,  and  a  va- 
riety of  little  nameless  jobs  must  be  done  between 
those  hours." 

Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.  of  Elyria,  Ohio,  who  re- 
sided in  Florida  in  1834  and  5,  gives  the  follow- 
ing testimony : 

"  After  having  finished  their  field  labors,  they 
are  occupied  till  nine  or  ten  o'clock  in  doing 
chores,  such  as  grinding  corn,  (as  all  the  corn  in 
the  vicinity  is  ground  by  hand,)  chopping  wood, 
taking  care  of  horses,  mules,  &c.,  and  a  thousand 
things  necessary  to  be  done  on  a  large  plantation. 
If  any  extra  job  is  to  be  done,  it  must  not  hinder 
the  '  niggers'  from  their  work,  but  must  be 
done  in  the  niglit." 

W.  C.  GiLDERSLEEVE,  Esq.,  a  native  of  Georgia, 
an  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Wilkes- 
barre,  says : 

"  The  corn  is  ground  in  a  handmill  by  the  slave 
after  his  task  is  done — generally  there  is  but  one 
mill  on  a  plantation,  and  as  but  one  can  grind  at 
a  time,  the  mill  is  going  sometimes  very  late  at 
night." 

We  now  present  another  class  of  facts  and  tes- 
timony, showing  that  the  slaves  engaged  in 
raising  the  large  staples,  are  overworked. 

In  September,  1834,  the  writer  of  this  had  an 
interview  with  James  G.  Birney,  Esq.,  who  then 
resided  in  Kentucky,  having  removed  with  his 
family  from  Alabama  the  year  before.  A  few 
hours  before  that  interview,  and  on  the  morning 


of  the  sarne  day,  Mr.  B.  had  spent  a  couple  of 
hours  with  Hon.  Henry  Clay,  at  his  residence, 
near  Lexington.  Mr.  Birney  remarked,  that 
Mr.  Clay  had  just  told  him,  he  had  lately  been 
led  to  mistrust  certain  estimates  as  to  the  in- 
crease of  the  slave  population  in  the  far  south 
west — estimates  which  he  had  presented,  I  think, 
in  a  speech  before  the  Colonization  Society.  He 
now  believed,  that  the  births  among  the  slaves  in 
that  quarter  were  not  equal  to  the  deaths — and 
that,  of  course,  the  slave  population,  independent 
of  immigration  from  the  slave-selling  states, 
was  not  sustaining  itself. 

Among  other  facts  stated  by  Mr.  Clay,  was 
the  following,  which  we  copy  verbatim  from  the 
original  memorandum,  made  at  the  time  by  Mr. 
Birney,  with  which  he  has  kindly  furnished  us. 

"  Sept.  16,  1834. — Hon.  H.  Clay,  m  a  conver- 
sation at  his  own  house,  on  the  subject  of  slave- 
ry, informed  me,  that  Hon.  Outerbridge  Horsey, 
formerly  a  senator  in  Congress  from  the  state  of 
Delaware,  and  the  ovv'iier  of  a  sugar  plantation 
in  Louisiana,  declraed  to  him,  that  his  overseer 
worked  his  hands  so  closely,  that  one  of  the  wo- 
men brought  forth  a  child  whilst  engaged  in  the 
labors  of  the  field. 

"Also,  that  a  few  years  since,  he  was  at  a  brick 
yard  in  the  environs  of  New  Orleans,  in  which 
one  hundred  hands  were  employed  ;  among  them 
were  from  twenty  to  thirty  young  women,  in  the 
prime  of  life.  He  was  told  by  the  proprietor,  that 
there  had  not  been  a  child  born  among  them  for 
the  last  two  or  three  years,  although  they  all  had 
husbands.'''' 

The  preceding  testimony  of  Mr.  Clay,  Is 
strongly  corroborated  by  advertisements  of 
slaves,  by  Courts  of  Probate,  and  by  executors 
administering  upon  the  estates  of  deceased  per- 
sons. Some  of  those  advertisements  for  the  sale 
of  slaves,  contain  the  names,  ages,  accustomed 
employment,  &c.,  of  all  the  slaves  upon  the 
plantation  of  the  deceased.  These  catalogues 
show  large  numbers  of  young  men  and  women, 
almost  all  of  them  between  twenty  and  thirty- 
eight  years  old ;  and  yet  the  number  of  young 
children  is  astonishingly  small.  We  have  laid 
aside  many  lists  of  this  kind,  in  looking  over  the 
newspapers  of  the  slaveholding  states  ;  but  the 
two  following  arc  all  we  can  lay  our  hands  on 
at  present.  One  is  in  the  "  Planter's  Intelligen- 
cer," Alexandria,  La.,  March  22,  1837,  contain 
ing  one  hundred  and  thirty  slaves  ;  and  the  other 
in  the  New  Orleans  Bee,  a  few  days  later,  April 
8,  1837,  containing  fifty-one  slaves.  The  for- 
mer is  a  "  Probate  sale"  of  the  slaves  belonging 
to  the  estate  of  Mr.  Charles  S.  Lee,  deceased, 
and  is  advertised  by  G.  W.  Keeton,  Judge  of  the 
Parish  of  Concordia,  La.  The  sex,  name,  and 
age  of  each  slave  arc  contained  in  the  advertise- 
ment, which  fills  two  columns.  The  following 
are  some  of  the  particulars. 


38 


m 


rivations  of  the  Slaves — Labor. 


The  whole  number  of  slaves  is  one  hundred 
and  thirtij.  Of  these,  07ily  three  are  over  forty 
years  old.  There  are  thirty-five  females  butwecn 
the  ages  of  sixteen  and  thirty-three,  and  j-et  there 
are  only  thirteen  children  under  the  age  of 
thirteen  years  ! 

It  is  impossible  Batisfactorily  to  account  for 
such  a  fact,  on  any  other  supposition,  than  that 
these  thirty-five  females  were  so  overworked,  or 
underfed,  or  both,  as  to  prevent  child-bearing. 

The  other  advertisement  is  that  of  a  "  Probate 
yale,"  ordered  by  the  Court  of  the  Parish  of  Jef 
ferson — including  the  slaves  of  Mr.  William 
Gormley.  The  whole  number  of  slaves  is  fifty- 
one  ;  the  sex,  age,  and  accustomed  labors  of 
each  are  given.  The  oldest  of  these  slaves  is  but 
thirty-nine  years  old :  of  the  females,  thirteen  are 
between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  thirty-two,  and 
the  oldest  female  is  but  thirty-eight — and  yet 
there  are  but  two  children  under  eight  years 
old.' 

Another  proof  that  the  slaves  in  the  south- 
western states  are  over-worked,  is  the  fact,  that 
po  fev/  of  them  live  to  old  age.  A  large  majori- 
ty of  them  are  old  at  middle  age,  and  fcv^  live 
beyond  fifty-five.  In  one  of  the  preceding  ad- 
vertisements, out  of  one  hundred  and  thirty 
slaves,  only  three  are  over  forty  years  old !  In 
the  other,  out  of  fifty -one  slaves,  only  two  are 
over  thirty-five  ;  the  oldest  is  but  thirty-nine,  and 
the  way  in  which  he  is  designated  in  the  adver- 
tisement, is  an  additional  proof,  that  what  to 
others  is  "  middle  age,"  is  to  the  slaves  in  the 
south-west  "  old  age  :"  he  is  advertised  as  "  old 
Jefiircy.'' 

But  the  proof  that  the  slave  population  of  the 
south-west  is  so  over- worked  that  it  cannot  supply 
its  own  icaste,  does  not  rest  upon  mere  inferen- 
tial evidence.  The  Agricultural  Society  of  Ba- 
ton Rouge,  La.,  in  its  report,  pubHshed  in  1829, 
furnishes  a  labored  estimate  of  the  amount  of  ex- 
penditure necessarily  incurred  in  conducting  "a 
well-regulated  sugar  estate."  In  this  estimate, 
the  annual  net  loss  of  slaves,  over  and  above  the 
supply  by  propagation,  is  set  down  at  two  and  a 
UAi.F  PER  cent  !  The  late  Hon.  Josiah  S.  John- 
son, a  member  of  Congress  from  Louisiana,  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  United 
States'  Treasury,  in  1830,  containing  a  similar 
estimate,  apparently  made  with  great  care,  and 
going  into  minute  details.  Many  items  in  this 
estimate  differ  from  the  preceding ;  but  the  esti- 
mate of  the  annual  decrease  of  the  slaves  on  a 
plantation  was  the  same — two  and  a   half  per 

CENT  ! 

The  following  testimony  of  Rev.  Dr.  Chan- 
•fiNO,  of  Boston,  who  resided  some  time  in  Vir- 
ginia, shows  tliat  the  over-working  of  slaves,  to 
kuch  aa  extent  as  to  abridge  life,  and  cause  a 


decrease  of  population,  is  not  confined  to  the  far 
south  and  soutli-west. 

''  I  heard  of  an  estate  managed  by  an  Individ 
ual  who  was  considered  as  singularly  successful, 
and  who  was  able  to  govern  the  slaves  without 
the  use  of  the  whip.  I  was  anxious  to  see  him, 
and  trusted  that  some  discovery  had  been  made 
favorable  to  humanity.  I  asked  him  how  he 
was  able  to  dispense  with  corporal  punishment. 
He  replied  to  me,  with  a  very  determined  look. 
'  The  slaves  know  that  the  work  must  be  done, 
and  that  it  is  better  to  do  it  without  punishment 
than  with  it.'  In  other  words,  the  certainty  a.nd 
riread  of  chastisement  were  so  impressed  on 
them,  that  they  never  incurred  it. 

"  I  then  found  that  the  slaves  on  this  well- 
managed  estate,  decreased  in  number.  I  asked 
the  cause.  He  replied,  with  perfect  frankness 
and  ease,  '  The  gang  is  not  large  enough  for  thi- 
estate.'  In  other  words,  they  were  not  equal  to 
the  work  of  the  plantation,  and  yet  were  made  to 
do  it,  though  with  the  ccrtaint}'  of  abridging  life. 

"  On  this  plantation  the  huts  were  uncom- 
monly convenient.  There  was  an  unusual  air 
of  neatness.  A  superficial  observer  would  have 
called  the  slaves  happy.  Yet  they  were  living 
under  a  severe,  subduing  discipline,  and  were 
over.iDorhed  to  a  degree  that  shortened  life." — 
Channing  on  Slaveri/,  page  162,  first  edition. 

Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  of  Elyria,  Ohio, 
who  spent  some  time  in  Florida,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing testimony  to  the  over-working  of  the 
slaves : 

"It  is  not  uncommon  for  hands,  in  hurrymg 
times,  beside  working  all  day,  to  labor  half  the 
night.  This  is  usually  the  case  on  sugar  planta- 
tions, during  the  sugar-bciling  season  ;  and  on 
cotton,  during  its  gathering.  Beside  the  regular 
task  of  picking  cotton,  averaging  of  the  short 
staple,  when  the  crop  is  good,  100  pounds  a  day 
to  the  hand,  the  ginning  (extrac^'ng  the  seed,) 
and  baling  was  done  in  the  night.  Said  Mr. 
to  me,  while  conversing  upon  the  cus. 


tomary  labor  of  slaves,  '  I  work  my  niggers  in  a 
hurrying  time  till  11  or  12  o'clock  at  nigiit,  and 
have  them  up  b}'  four  in  Ihe  morning.' 

"  Beside  tlie  common  inducement,  tjie  desire  of 
gain,  to  make  a  large  crop,  the  desire  is  increased 
by  that  spirit  of  gambling,  so  common  at  the 
south.  It  is  very  common  to  bet  on  the  issue  of 
a  crop.  A.  lays  a  wager  that,  from  a  given  num- 
ber of  hands,  he  will  make  more  cotton  than  B. 
'jhc  vy-ager  is  accepted,  and  then  begins  the  con- 
test ;  and  who  bears  the  burden  of  it  ?  How 
many  tears,  yea,  how  many  broken  constitutions, 
and  premature  deaths,  have  been  the  effect  of 
this  spirit  ?  From  the  desperate  energy  of  pur- 
pose with  which  the  gambler  pursues  his  object, 
from  the  passions  which  the  practice  calls  into 
exercise,  we  might  conjecture  many.  Such  is 
the  fact.  In  Middle  Florida,  a  hrohen-vnnded 
negro  is  more  common  than  a  broken-winded 
horse  ;  though  usually,  when  they  are  declared 
unsoimd,  or  when  their  constitution  is  so  broken 
that  their  recovery  is  despaired  of.  lluy  are  ex- 
ported to  New  Orleans,  to  drag  out  the  remain- 
der of  their  days  in  the  cane-field  and  s rgar 
house.  I  would  not  insinuate  tii::  i  ail  planters 
gamble    upon  their   crops;   but  I  mention   tlia 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Labor. 


39 


piactice  as  one  of  the  common  inducements  to 
*  pusli  niggers.'  Neither  would  I  assert  that  all 
planters  drive  the  hands  to  the  injury  of  their 
health.  I  give  it  as  a  general  rule  in  the  district 
of  Middle  Florida,  and  I  have  no  reason  to  think 
that  negroes  are  driven  worse  there  than  in  other 
fertile  sections.  People  there  told  me  that  the 
situation  of  the  slaves  was  far  better  than  in  Mis- 
sissippi and  Louisiana.  And  from  comparing 
the  crops  witli  those  made  in  the  latter  states, 
and  for  other  reasons,  I  am  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  their  statements." 

Dr.  Demming,  a  gentleman  of  high  respectabili- 
ty, residing  in  Ashland,  Richland  county,  Ohio, 
stated  to  Professor  Wright,   of  New  York  city, 

"  That  during  a  recent  tour  at  the  south,  while 
ascending  the  Ohio  river,  on  the  steamboat  Fame, 
lie  had  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with  a  Mr. 
Dickinson,  a  resident  of  Pittsburg,  in  company 
with  a  number  of  cotton-planters  and  slave-deal- 
ers, from  Louisiana,-  Alabama,  and  Mississippi. 
Mr.  Dickinson  stated  as  a  fact,  that  the  sugar 
planters  upon  the  sugar  coast  in  Louisiana  had 
ascertained,  that,  as  it  was  usually  necessary  lo 
employ  about  twice  the  amount  of  labor  during 
the  boiling  season,  that  was  required  during  tlie 
season  of  raising,  they  could,  by  excessive  driv- 
ing, day  and  night,  during  the  boiling  season, 
accomplish  the  whole  labor  with  one  set  of  hands. 
By  pursuing  this  plan,  they  could  afibrd  to  sacri- 
fice a  set  of  hands  once  in  seven  years  !  lie  fur- 
ther stated  that  this  horrible  system  was  now 
practised  to  a  considerable  extent !  The  cor- 
rectness of  this  statement  was  substantially  ad- 
mitted by  the  slaveholders  then  on  board." 

The  late  Mr.  Samuel  Blackwell,  a  highly  re- 
spected citizen  of  Jersey  city,  opposite  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  visited  many  of  the  sugar  plantations  in 
Louisiana  a  few  years  since  ;  and  having  for 
many  years  been  the  owner  of  an  extensive  sugar 
refinery  in  England,  and  subsequently  in  this 
country,  he  had  not  only  every  facility  afforded 
him  by  the  planters,  for  personal  inspection  of 
aU  parts  of  the  process  of  sugar-making,  but  re- 
ceived from  them  the  most  unreserved  commu- 
nications, as  to  their  management  of  their  slaves. 
Mr.  B.,  after  his  return,  frequently  made  the  fol- 
lowing statement  to  gentlemen  of  his  acquain- 
tance,— "  That  the  planters  generally  declared 
to  him,  that  they  were  obliged  so  to  over-work 
their  slaves  during  the  sugar-making  season,  (from 
eight  to  ten  weeks,)  as  to  use  them  up  in  seven 
or  eight  years.  For,  said  they,  after  the  process 
»s  commenced,  it  must  be  pushed  without  cessa- 
tion, night  and  day ;  and  we  cannot  afford  to 
seep  a  sufficient  number  of  slaves  to  do  the  extra 
A'ork  at  the  time  of  sugar-making,  as  we  could 
/Jot  profitably  employ  them  the  rest  of  the  year." 

It  is  not  only  true  of  the  sugar  planters,  but  of 
the  slaveholders  generally  throughout  the  far 
south  and  south  west,  that  they  believe  it  for  their 
interest  to  wear  out  the  slaves  by  excessive  toil  in 
eight  or  ten  years  after  they  put  them  into  the 
field.* 

*  Alf-xander  .Tones,  Esq.,  a  large  planter  in  West  Ppliciana, 
Louisi.ana,  published  a  communication  in  the  "  Nortli  Ca- 
rolina True  American,"  Nov.  25,  1838,  in  which,  spealiing 


Rev.  Doctor  Reed,  of  London,  who  went 
through  Kentucky,  Virginia  and  Maryland  in  tire 
summer  of  1834,  gives  the  following  testimony  : 

"  I  was  told  confidently  and  from  excellent 
authority,  tliat  recently  at  a  meeting  of  planters 
in  South  Carolina,  the  question  was  seriously  dig. 
cussed  whether  the  slave  is  more  profitable  to  the 
owner,  if  well  fed,  well  clothed,  and  worked 
hghtly,  or  if  made  the  most  of  at  once,  and  ex- 
hausted in  some  eight  years.  The  decision  was 
in  favor  of  the  last  alternative.  That  decision 
will  perhaps  make  many  shudder.  But  to  my 
mind  this  is  not  the  chief  evil.  The  greater  and 
original  evil  is  considering  the  slave  as  property. 
If  he  is  only  property  and  my  property,  then  I 
have  some  right  to  ask  how  I  may  make  that 
property  most  available." 

"Visit  to  the  American  Churches,"  by  Rev.  Drs.  R'-ed 
and  Mattliesou.  Vol.  2.  p.  173. 

Rev.  John  O.  Choules,  recently  pastor  of  the 
Baptist  Church  at  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts, 
now  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  made  substantially 
the  following  statement  in  a  speech  in  Boston. 

"  While  attending  the  Baptist  Triennial  Con- 
vention at  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  the  spring  of 
1835,  as  a  delegate  from  Massachusetts,  I  had 
a  conversation  on  slavery,  with  an  officer  of 
the  Baptist  Church  in  that  city,  at  whose  house 
I  was  a  guest.  I  asked  my  host  if  he  did  not 
apprehend  that  the  slaves  would  eventually  rise 
and  exterminate  their  masters. 

"Why,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  I  used  to  ap- 
prehend such  a  catastrophe,  but  God  has  made  a 
providential  opening,  a  merciful  safety  valve,  and 
now  I  do  not  feel  alarmed  in  the  prospect  of 
what  is  coming.  '  What  do  you  mean,  said  Mr. 
Choules, '  by  providence  opening  a  merciful  safety 
valve  V  Why,  said  the  gentleman,  I  will  tell 
you  ;  the  slave  traders  coine  from  the  cotton  and 
sugar  plantations  of  the  South  and  are  willing  to 
buy  up  more  slaves  than  we  can  part  with.  We 
must  keep  a  stock  for  the  purpose  of  rearing 
slaves,  but  we  part  with  the  most  valuable,  and 
at  the  same  time,  the  most  dangerous,  and  the 
demand  is  very  constant  and  likely  to  be  so,  for 
when  they  go  to  these  southern  states,  the  a\'erage 
existence  is  only  five  years  I" 

Monsieur  C.  C.  Robin,  a  highly  intelligent 
French  gentleman,  who  resided  in  Louisiana 
from  1802  to  1806,  and  published  a  volume  of 
travels,  gives  the  following  testimony  to  the  over- 
working of  the  slaves  there  : 

"  I  have  been  a  witness,  that  after  the  fatigue 
of  the  day,  their  labors  have  been  prolonged  se- 
veral hours  by  the  light  of  the  moon  ;  and  then, 
before  they  could  think  of  rest,  they  mu.st  pound 
and  cook  their  corn  ;  and  yet,  long  before  dav, 
an  implacable  scold,  whip  in  hand,  would  arouse 
them  from  their  slumbers.     Thus,  of  more  than 

of  the  horses  employed  in  the  mills  on  the  pinntnfions  for  gin- 
nine;  cotton,  he  says,  they  "  are  much  whipped  and  jaded;" 
and  adds,  "  In  fact,  this  service  is  so  severe  on  horses,  as  to 
shorten  their  lives  in  many  instances,  if  not  actually  kill 
them  in  gear." 

Those  who  work  one  kind  of  their  "  live  slock"  sn  as  to 
"  shorten  their  lives,"  or  "  kill  tlicm  in  (lear,"  would  nol 
slick  at  doing  tlie  same  thing  to  anotlier  kind. 


40 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Clothing. 


twenty  negroes,  who  in  twenty  years  should  liavc 
doubled,  the  nunihcr  tens  reduced  to  four  or  five.'" 
In  conclusion  wc  add,  that  slaveholders  have 
in  the  most  public  and  emphatic  manner  declared 
themselves  guilty  of  barbarous  inhumanity  toward 
their  slaves  in  exacting-  from  them  such  long 
continued  daily  labor.  The  Legislatures  of 
Maryland,  Virginia  and  Georgia,  have  passed 
laws  providing  that  convicts  in  their  state  prisons 
and  penitentiaries,  "  shall  be  employed  in  work 
each  day  in  the  year  except  Sunda)'s,  not  ex- 
ceeding eight  hours,  in  the  months  of  November, 
December,  and  January ;  nine  hours,  in  the 
months  of  February  and  October,  and  ten  hours 
in  the  rest  of  the  year."  Now  contrast  this  legal 
exaction  of  labor  from  co.wicts  with  the  exaction 
from  slaves  as  established  by  the  preceding  tes- 
timony. The  reader  perceives  that  the  araomit 
of  time,  in  which  by  the  preceding  laws  of  Mary- 


land, Virginia,  and  Georgia,  the  convicts  in  thei« 
prisons  are  required  to  labor,  is  on  an  average 
during  the  year  but  little  more  than  nine  hours 
daily.  Whereas,  the  laws  of  South  Carolina 
permit  the  master  to  compel  his  slaves  to  work 
FIFTEEN  HOURS  in  the  twenty-four,  in  summer, 
and  FOURTEEN  in  the  winter — which  would  be  m 
winter,  from  daybreak  in  the  morning  until /omj- 
hours  after  sunset! — See  2  Brevard's  Digest,  243. 

The  other  slave  states,  except  Louisiana,  have 
no  laws  respecting  the  labor  of  slaves,  conse- 
quently if  the  master  should  work  his  slaves  day 
and  night  without  sleep  till  they  drop  dead,  he 
violates  no  law .' 

The  law  of  Louisiana  provides  for  the  slaves 
but  TWO  AND  A  HALF  HOURS  in  the  twenty -four  for 
"  rest !"  See  law  of  Louisiana,  act  of  July  7. 
1806,  Martin's  Digest  6.  10—12. 


III.  CLOTHING. 


We  propose  to  show  under  thip  head,  that  the  clothing  of  the  slaves  by  day,  and  their  covering  by 
night,  are  inadequate,  cither  for  comfort  or  decency. 


WITNESSES. 

Hon.  T.  T.  Boiildin,  a  slave-holder, 
aiid  mciiilicr  of  Conmess  from  Virginia, 
in  a  speecii  in  Congress,  Feb.  16,  1835. 


George  Buctianan,  M.  D.,  of  Balti- 
more, mpmlier  of  tlie  American  Pliilo- 
sophical  Society,  in  an  oration  at  Balti- 
more, July  4,  IT'Jl. 

Wni.  Savery  of  Pliiladelpliia  an 
pniineiit  Minister  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  who  went  throutrh  the  SoutU- 
erii  states  in  1791,  on  a  relisious  visit ; 
after  leaving  Savannah,  Ga.,  we  find 
the  following  entry  in  his  journal,  Otli, 
montli,  28,  1791. 


Rev.  John  Rankin,  of  Ripley,  Ohio,  a 
native  of  Tennessee. 


John  Parrish,  late  of  Philadelphia,  a 
highly  esteemed  minister  in  the  Society 
of  Friends,  who  travelled  through  tlie 
South  in  1804. 


Rev.  Phincas  Smith,  Centrcville,  Alle- 
gany, Co.,  N.  y.  Mr.  S.  has  just  re- 
turned from  a  residence  of  several 
years  at  t!ie  south,  chiefly  in  Virginia, 
Louieia'ia,  and  among  the  American 
settlers  in  Texas. 


Wm.  Ladd,  Esq.,  of  Minot,  MaiiK", 
recently  a  slaveholder  in  Florida. 


TESTIM0N1-. 

Mr.  Bouldin  said  "  he  knew  that  many  negroes  had  died  from 
exposure  to  Aveather,"  and  added,  "  they  are  clad  in  3.  flimsy 
fabric,  that  will  turn  neither  wind  nor  water." 

"  The  slaves,  naked  and  starved,  often  fall  victims  to  the 
inclemencies  of  the  weather." 


"  We  rode  through  many  rice  swamps,  where  the  blacks  were 
very  numerous,  great  droves  of  these  poor  slaves,  %vorking  up  to 
the  middle  in  water,  men  and  women  nearly  naked." 


"  In  every  slave-holding  state,  many  slaves  suffer  extremely, 
both  while  they  labor  and  while  they  sleep, /or  want  of  clothing 
to  keep  them  warm." 

"  It  is  shocking  to  the  feelings  of  humanity,  in  travelling 
through  some  of  those  states,  to  see  those  poor  objects,  [slaves,] 
especially  in  the  inclement  season,  in  rags,  and  trembling  icith 
the  cold."         .... 

"  They  suffer  them,  both  male  and  female,  to  go  without  cloth, 
ing  at  the  age  of  ten  and  twelve  years." 

"  The  apparel  of  the  slaves,  is  of  the  coarsest  sort  and  excfcd- 
ingly  deficient  in  ((uantity.  I  have  been  on  many  plantations, 
where  children  of  eight  and  ten  )'cars  old,  were  in  a  state  of 
perfect  nudity.      Slaves  are  in  general  wretchedly  clad." 

"  They  were  allowed  two  suits  of  clothes  a  year,  viz.  one  pair 
of  trowscrs  with  a  shirt  or  frock  of  osnaburgh  for  summer  ; 
and  for  winter,  one  pair  of  trowsers,  and  a  jacket  of  negro  cloth, 
with  a  baize  shirt  and  a  pair  of  shoes.  Some  allowed  hats,  and 
Koine  did  not  ;  and  they  were  generally,  I  believe,  allowed  one 
blanket  in  two  years.  Garments  of  similar  materials  were  allow- 
ed the  women." 


A  Kentucky  physician,  writing  in 
the  Western  Medical  Reformer,  in  1830, 
ou  the  (tiscaacs  peculiar  to  slaves,  says. 


They  are  imperfectly  clothed  both  summer  and  winter." 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Clothing. 


41 


"  I  was  at  Huntsvillc,  Alabama,  in  1818-19,  I  frequently  saw 
slaves  on  and  around  tlio  public  square,  u'ith  hardhj  a  rag  of 
clothing  on  them,  and  in  a  great  many  instances  with  but  a  single 
garment  both  in  summer  and  in  winter  ;  generally  the  only  bed. 
ding  of  the  slaves  was  a  blanket" 

"  Their  clothing  consisted  of  a  pair  of  trowsers  and  jacket, 
made  of  '  negro  cloth.'  The  women  a  petticoat,  a  very  short 
'  short-gown,'  and  nothing  else,  the  same  kind  of  cloth ;  some  of 
the  women  had  an  old  pair  of  shoes,  but  they  generally  went 
barefoot." 

"  Their  clothing  is  often  made  by  themselves  after  night, 
though  sometimes  assisted  by  the  old  women,  who  are  no  longer 
able  to  do  out-door  work  ;  consequently  it  is  harsh  and  uncom- 
fortable. And  I  have  very  frequently  seen  those  who  had  not 
attained  the  age  of  twelve  years  go  naked." 

"  It  is  very  common  to  see  the  younger  class  of  slaves  up  to 
eight  or  ten  without  any  clothing,  and  most  generally  the  labor- 
ing men  wear  no  shirts  in  the  warm  season.  The  perfect  nudi- 
ty of  the  younger  slaves  is  so  familiar  to  the  whites  of  both 
sexes,  that  they  seem  to  witness  it  vv^ith  perfect  indifference. 
I  may  add  that  the  aged  and  feeble  often  suffer  from  cold." 

"  For  bedding  each  slave  was  allowed  one  blanket,  in  which 
they  rolled  themselves  up.  I  examined  their  houses,  but  could 
not  find  any  thing  like  a  bed." 

"  It  is  an  every  day  sight  to  scs  women  as  well  as  men,  with 
no  other  covering  than  a  fetii  filtht/ rags  fastened  aboce  the  hips, 
reaching  midway  to  the  ankles.  I  never  knew  any  kind  of  cover- 
ing for  the  head  given.  Children  of  both  sexes,  from  infancy  to 
ten  years  arc  seen  in  companies  on  the  plantations,  in  a  state  of 
perfect  nudity.  This  was  so  common  that  the  most  refined 
and  delicate  beheld  them  unmoved." 

Mr.  William  Leftwich,  a  native  of         »  The  only  bedding  of  the  slaves  generally  consists  of  two  old 
Virginia,  now  a  member  of  the  Presby-      iJ„„hplv  " 
terian  Cliurch,  in  DeUii,  Ohio.  Oio.nt^eit,. 


Mr.  Stephen  E.  Maltby,  Inspector  of 
provisions,  Skeneateles,  N.  Y.,  who  re- 
sided sometime  in  Alabama. 


Reuben  G.  Macy,  Hudson,  N.  Y. 
member  of  iJie  Society  of  Friends,  wlio 
resided  in  South  Carolina,  in  1818  and 
19. 


Mr.  Lemuel  Sapington,  of  Ldncaster, 
Pa.,  a  native  of  Marjiand,  and  former- 
ly a  slaveholder 


Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  in 
Elyria,  Ohio,  wlio  lived  iu  Florida  in 
1S34  and  35. 


Richard  Macy,  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  Hudson,  N.  Y.,  who 
has  lived  in  Georgia. 


W,  C.  Gildt'rsloeve,  Esq.,  Wilkesbarre, 
Pa.,  a  native  of  Georgia. 


Advertisements  like  the  following  from  the 
''  New  Orleans  Bee,"  May  31,  1837,  are  com- 
mon   in  tlie  southern  papers. 

"  10  DOLLARS  REWARD.— Ranaway,  the 
slave  Solomon,  about  28  years  of  age;  badly 
CLOTHED.  The  above  reward  will  be  paid  on 
application  to  Fernandez  &  Whiting,  No.  20,  St. 
Louis  St.  ' 

RANAV/AY  from  the  subscriber  the  negress 
Fanny,  always  badly  dressed,  she  is  about  25  or 
26  years  sold.     John  Macoin,  117  S.  Ann  st. 

The  Darien  (Ga.),  Telegraph,  of  Jan.  24,  1837, 
in  an  editorial  article,  hitting  off  the  aristocracy 
of  the  planters,  incidentally  lets  out  some  secrets, 
about  the  usual  clothing  of  the  slaves.  The  editor 
says, — "  The  planter  looks  down,  with  the  most 
sovereign  contempt,  on  the  merchant  and  the 
storekeeper.  He  deems  himself  a  lord,  because 
he  gets  liis  two  or  three  ragged  servants,  to  row 
him  to  his  plantation  every  day,  that  he  may  in- 
spect the  labor  of  his  hands." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  lately 
received  from  Rev.  C.  S.  Rensiiaw,  of  Quincy, 
Illinois. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  give  more  testi- 
mony without  the  name.  An  individual  in  whom 
I  have  great  confidence,  gave  mc  the  following 
facts.  That  I  am  not  alone  in  placing  confi- 
dence in  him,  I  subjoin  a  testimonial  from  Dr. 
Richard  Eells,  Deacon  of  the  Congregational 
Church,  of  Quincy,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Fisher,  Baptist 
Minister  of  Quincy. 


"  We  have  been  acquainted  with  the  brother 
who  has  communicated  to  you  some  facts  that 
fell  under  his  observation,  whilst  in  his  native 
state  ;  he  is  a  professed  follower  of  our  Lord, 
and  we  have  great  confidence  in  him  as  a  man 
of  integrity,  discretion,  and  strict  Christian  prin 
ciple.  Richard  Eells. 

Ezra  Fisher 

Quincy,  Jan.  9th,  1839. 

Testimony. — "  I  lived  for  thirty  years  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  have  travelled  extensively  through 
Fauquier,  Culpepper,  Jefferson,  Stafford,  Albe- 
marle and  Charlotte  Counties  ;  my  remarks  apply 
to  these  Counties. 

"  The  negro  houses  are  miserably  poor,  general- 
ly they  are  a  shelter  from  neither  the  wind,  the 
rain,  iior  the  snow,  and  the  earth  is  the  floor. 
There  are  exceptions  to  this  rule,  but  they  are 
only  exceptions  ;  you  may  sometimes  see  pun- 
cheon floor,  but  never,  or  almost  never  a  plank 
floor.  The  slaves  are  generally  without  beds  or 
bedsteads  ;  some  few  have  cribs  that  they  fasttn 
up  for  themselves  in  the  corner  of  the  hat.  Their 
bed-clothes  are  a  nest  of  rags  thrown  upon  a  crib, 
or  in  the  corner  ;  sometimes  there  are  three  or 
four  families  in  one  small  cabin.  Where  the 
slaveholders  have  more  than  one  family,  they  put 
them  in  the  same  quarter  till  it  is  filled,  then 
build  another.  I  have  seen  exceptions  to  this, 
when  only  one  family  would  occupy  a  hut,  and 
where  were  tolerably  comfortable  bed-clothes. 

"  Most  of  the  slaves  in  these  counties  are  mise- 


42 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Clothing. 


rably  clad.  I  have  known  slaves  who  went  with- 
out shoes  all  winter,  perfectly  barefoot.  The 
feet  of  many  of  them  arc  frozen.  As  a  general 
fact  the  planters  do  not  serve  out  to  their  slaves, 
drawers,  or  any  under  clotliing,  or  ver-ts,  or  over- 
coats. Slaves  sometimes,  by  working  at  night 
and  on  Sundays,  get  better  things  than  their  mas- 
ters serve  to  them. 

"  Whilst  these  things  are  true  o{  field.hands,  it 
is  also  true  that  many  slaveholders  clothe  their 
waiters  and  coachmen  like  gentlemen.  I  do  not 
think  there  is  any  difference  between  the  slaves 
of  professing  Christians  and  others;  at  all  events, 
it  is  so  small  as  to  be  scarcely  noticeable. 

"  I  have  seen  men  and  women  at  work  in  the 
field  more  than  half  naked  :  and  more  than  once 
in  passing,  when  the  overseer  was  not  near,  they 
would  stop  and  draw  round  them  a  tattered  coat 
or  some  ribbons  of  a  skirt  to  hide  their  nakedness 
and  shame  from  the  stranger's  eye." 

Mr.  George  W.  Westgate,  a  member  of  the 
Congregational  Church  in  Quincy,  Illinois,  who 
has  spent  the  larger  part  of  twelve  years  navigat- 
ing the  rivers  of  the  south-western  slave  states 
v/ith  keel  boats,  as  a  trader,  gives  the  following 
testimony  as  to  the  clothing  and  lodging  of  the 
slaves.  * 

"In  Lower  Tennessee,  ?,Ii.--/  slppi  and  Louisi- 
ana, the  clothing  of  the  slaves  is  wretchedly 
poor ;  and  grows  worse  as  you  go  south,  in 
the  order  of  the  states  I  have  named.  The  onl}' 
material  is  cotton  bagging,  i.  e.  bagging  in  which 
cotton  is  haled,  not  bagging  made  of  cotton.  In 
Louisiana,  especially  in  the  lower  country,  I 
have  frequently  seen  them  with  nothing  but  a 
tattered  coat,  not  sufficient  to  hide  their  naked- 
ness. In  winter  their  clothing  seldom  serves  the 
purpose  of  comfort,  and  frequently  not  even  of 
decent  covering.  In  Louisiana  the  planters  never 
think  of  serving  out  shoes  to  slaves.  In  Missis- 
sippi they  give  one  pair  a  year  generally.  I  never 
saw  or  heard  of  an  instance  of  masters  allowing 
them  stockings.  A  small  poor  blanket  is  genei-- 
(illy  the  only  bed-clothing,  and  this  they  frequently 
wear  in  the  field  when  they  have  not  sufficient 
clothing  to  hide  their  nakedness  or  to  keep  them 
warm.  Their  manner  of  sleeping  varies  with 
the  season.  In  hot  weather  they  stretch  them- 
selves anywhere  and  sleep.  As  it  becomes  cool 
they  roll  themselves  in  their  blankets,  and  lay 
scattered  about  the  cabin.  In  cold  weather  they 
nestle  together  with  their  feet  towards  the  fire, 
promiscuously.  As  a  general  fact  the  earth  is 
their  only  floor  and  bed — not  one  in  ten  have 
anything  like  a  bedstead,  and  then  it  is  a  mere 
bunk  put  up  by  themselves." 

Mr.  George  A.  Averv,  an  elder  in  the  fourth 
Congregational  Church,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  who 
Fpcnt  four  years  in  Virginia,  says,  "  The  slave 
children,  very  commonly  of  both  sexes,  up  to 
the  ages  of  eight  and  ten  years,  and  I  think  in 
some  inrtances  beyond  this  age,  go  in  a  state  of 
disgusting  nudity.  I  have  often  seen  them  with 
their  tow  shirt  (their  only  article  of  summer 
clothing)  which,  to  all  human  appearance,  had 
not  been  taken  off  from  the  time  it  was  first  put 
on,  worn  off  from  (he  bottom  upwards,  shred  by 
shred,  until    nothing    remained   but    the    straps 


which  passed  over  their  shoulders,  and  the  less 
exposed  portions  extending  a  very  little  way  be- 
low the  arms,  leaving  the  principal  part  uf  tho 
chest,  as  well  as  the  limbs,  entirely  uncovered." 

SaiMuel  Ellison,  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  formerly  of  Southampton  Co.,  Virginia, 
now  of  Marlborough,  Stark  Co.,  Ohio,  says,  "  I 
knew  a  Methodist  who  was  the  owner  of  a  num 
ber  of  slaves.  The  children  of  both  sexes,  be 
longing  to  him,  under  twelve  years  of  age,  were 
entirely  destitute  of  clothing.  I  have  seen  an 
old  man  compelled  to  labor  in  the  fields,  not  hav- 
ing  rags  enough  to  cover  his  nakedness." 

Rev.  II.  Lymax,  late  pastor  of  the  Free  Pres- 
byterian Church,  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  in  describing 
a  tour  down  and  up  the  Mississippi  river  in  the 
winter  of  1832-3,  says,  "At  the  wood  yards 
where  the  boats  stop,  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see 
female  slaves  employed  in  carrying  wood.  Their 
dress  which  was  quite  uniform  was  provided  witii 
out  any  reference  to  comfort.  They  had  no  cov 
ering  for  their  heads  ;  the  stuff  which  constituted 
the  outer  garment  was  sackcloth,  similar  to  that 
in  which  brown  domestic  goods  are  done  up.  It 
was  theij  December,  and  I  thought  that  in  such 
a  dress,  and  being  as  they  were,  without  stock- 
ings,  they  must  suffer  from  the  cold." 

Mr.  Benjamin  Anderson,  Colcrain,  Lancaster 
Co.,  Fa.,  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  in 
a  recent  letter  describing  a  short  tour  through 
the  northern  part  of  Maryland  in  the  winter  of 
1836,  thus  speaks  of  a  place  a  few  miles  from 
Chestertown.  ''About  this  place  there  wore  a 
number  of  slaves  ;  very  few,  if  any,  had  either 
stockings  or  shoes;  the  weather  was  intcnsel}' 
cold,  and  the  ground  covered  with  snow." 

The  late  Major  Stoddard  of  the  United  State,',' 
artillery,  who  took  possession  of  Louisiana  for  the 
U.  S.  government,  imder  the  cession  of  1804, 
published  a  book  entitled  "  Sketche^s  of  Louisi. 
ana,"  in  which,  speaking  of  the  planters  of  Lower 
Louisiana,  he  says,  "  Fcio  of  them  allow  airy 
clothing  to  their  slaves." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  Will  of 
the  late  celebrated  John  Randolph  of  Virginia. 

"To  my  old  and  faithful  servants,  Essex  and 
his  wife  Hetty,  I  give  and  bequeath  a  pair  of 
strong  shoes,  a  suit  of  clothes  and  a  blanket  each, 
to  be  paid  them  annually ;  also  an  annual  hat  to 
Essex." 

No  Virginia  slaveholder  has  ever  had  a  better 
name  as  a  "kind  master,"  and  "good  provider" 
for  his  slaves,  than  John  Randolph.  Essex  and 
Hetty  were  favorite  servants,  and  the  memory  of 
the  long  uncompensated  services  of  those  "old 
and  faithful  servants,"  seems  to  have  touched 
their  master's  heart.  Now  as  this  master  was 
John  Randolph,  and  as  those  servants  were 
"  faithful,"  and  favorite  servants,  advanced  in 
years,  and  worn  out  in  his  service,  and  as  their 
allowance  was,  in  their  master's  eyes,  of  sufficient 
moment  to  constitute  a  paragraph  in  his  last  7r>il.l 
and  testament,  it  is  fair  to  infer  that  it  would  be 
very  liberal,  far  better  than  the  ordinary  allow- 
ance for  slaves. 

Now  vvc  leave  the  reader  to  judge  wh.at  must 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Dwellings. 


43 


be  the  usual  allowance  of  clothing  to  common  i  annually,  with  but  one  blanket  each  for  bedding, 
field  slaves  in  the   hands  of   common  masters,    with  no  s<ocA:in^fi,  nor  soc/i;s,  nor  cZoaA-s,  nor  ovci- 
when  Essex  and   Hetty,   the   "  old"  and  "  faith-    coafs,  nor  handkerchiefs,  nor  towels,  and  with  no 
ful"  slaves  of  John  Randolph,  were  provided,  in  his    change  either  of  under  or  outside  garments  1 
last  will  and  testament,  with  but  one  suit  of  clothes  ' 

IV.  DWELLINGS. 

THE    SLAVES    ARE    WRETCHEDLY    SHELTERED    AND    LODGED. 

Mr.  Stephen  E.  Maltby,  Inspector  of         "The    huts  where  tiie  slaves   slept,  generally  contained  but 

provisions,  Skaiieateks,  N.  Y.  who  liaa     „. ,  .         j  ^i.   4.      -ji.      ^   a        ,, 

lived  in  Alabama.  one  apartment,  and  that  wiZAoui  Jioo?-." 

"  Amongst  all  the  negro  cabins  which    I    saw  in  Va.,  /  can. 

Mr.  Georjie  A.  Avory,  elder  of  the     not  call  to  mind  one  in  which  there  was  any  other  floor  than    the 

N  y   whrUvc^lVouSelii'siifv^^^^^^^         ««'-''^'  ^"7  ^^ing  that  a  northern  laborer,  or  mechanic,  white    or 

colored,  would  call  a  bed,  nor  a  solitary  partition,  to  separate  the 


William  Ladil,  Esq.,  Miiiot,  Maine. 
President  of  the  American  Peace  Socie- 
ty, formerly  a  slaveholder  in  Florida. 


Rev.  Joseph  M.  Sadd,  Pastor  Pres. 
Church,  Castile,  Greene  Co.,  N.  Y., 
who  lived  in  Missouri  live  years  previ- 
ous to  1837. 


Mr.  George  W.  Westgate,  member  of 
the  Congregational  Church  in  (iuincy, 
Illinois,  who  has  spent  a  number  of 
years  in  slave  states. 


Mr.  Cornelius  Johnson,  a  member  of 
a  Christian  Church  in  Farmington, 
Ohio.  Mr.  J.  lived  in  Mississippi  in 
1837-8. 


The  Western  Medical  Reformer,  in 
an  article  on  the  Cachexia  Africans  by  a 
Kentucky  physician,  thus  speaks  of  the 
huts   of  the  slaves. 


"  The  dwellings  of  the  slaves  were  palmetto  huts,  built  by 
themselves  of  stakes  and  poles,  thatched  with  the  palmetto  leaf. 
The  door,  when  they  had  any,  was  generally  of  the  sauie  materials, 
sometimes  boards  found  on  the  beach.  They  had  no  _/?oors,  no 
separate  apartments,  except  the  guinea  negroes  had  sometimes  a 
small  inclosure  for  their  '  god  house.'  These  huts  the  slaves 
built  themselves  after  task  and  on  Sundays." 

"  The  slaves  live  generally  in  miserable  huts,  which  are  with- 
out floors,  and  have  a  single  apartment  only,  where  both  sexes  are 
herded  promiscuously  together." 

"  On  old  plantations,  the  negro  quarters  are  of  frame  and 
clapboards,  seldom  affording  a  comfortable  shelter  from  wind  or 
rain ;  their  size  varies  from  8  by  10,  to  10  by  12,  feet,  and  si.x  or 
eight  feet  high  ;  sometimes  there  is  a  hole  cut  for  a  window,  but 
I  never  saw  a  sash,  or  glass  in  any.  In  the  new  country,  and  in 
the  woods,  the  quarters  are  generally  built  of  logs,  ef  similar 
dimensions." 

"  Their  houses  were  commonly  built  of  logs,  sometimes  they 
were  framed,  often  they  had  no  floor,  some  of  them  have  two 
apartments,  commonly  but  one  ;  each  of  tliose  apartments  con- 
tained a  family.  Sometimes  these  families  consisted  of  a  man 
and  his  wife  and  children,  while  in  other  instances  persons  of 
both  sexes,  were  thrown  together  without  any  regard  to  family  re- 
lationship." 

"  They  are  crowded  together  in  a  small  hut,  and  sometimes 
having  an  imperfect,  and  sometimes  no  floor,  and  seldom  raised 
from  the  ground,  ill  ventilated,  and  surrounded  with  filth." 


Mr.  WUliam  Leftwich,  a  native  of         «  The  dwellinjrs  of  the  slaves  are  log  huts,  from  10  to  12  feet 

Virgmia,  but  has  resided  most  of  his  r.  -.i.      i       •    j  j  -a «     «u„„     i,„„« 

life  in  Madison  Co.  Alabama.  square,    often    without   windovps,    doors,     or   tloors,    they    nave 

neither  chairs,  table,  or  bedstead." 

Reuben  L.Macy  of  Hudson,  N.Y.  a  "The  houses  for   the  field  slaves    were  about  14  feet  square, 

SZ  "ue'lYvefiL'"  south  Simt    built  in  the  coarsest  manner,  with  one  room   t./Mo.^  any  chim 
in  1818-19.  ney  or  flooring,  with  a  hole  in  the  roof  to  let  the  smoke  out. 

"  The    descriptions  generally  given  of    negro   quarters,    are 

Mr.  Lemuel  Sapington  of  Lancaster,     correct ;  the  quarters  are  icithout  floors,  and  not  sufficient  to  keep 

raiaveholdlr.  °''  ^^'''^^''"'^'   ^"'"^''^^     off  theinclenicncy  of  the  weather ;  \hey  are  uncomfortable  both 

in  summer  and  winter." 

"  When  they   return  to  their   miserable    huts    at  night,    they 

Rev.  John  Rankin,  a  native  ofTen-     find  not   there  the  means  of  comfortable  rest ;  but   on  the  cold 

"^^^®'  ground  they  mustlie   without  covering,  and  shiver  while   they 

slumber. 

Philemon  Bliss,  Esq.   Elyria,  Ohio.,         ''  The  dwellings  of  the  slaves  are  usually  small  openlog  huts, 
who  lived  in  Forida,  in  1835.  ^j^j^  Ij^t  o^g  apartment,  and  very  generally  without  flows." 


44 


Privations  of  the  Slaves — Treatment  of  the  Sick. 


^  without  floors,  and  with  a  single  apartment." 

Hon.  R.  J.  TurnbuU,  of  South  Caroli- 
na, a  siavelioldor. 

V.  TREATMENT  OF  THE  SICK. 


The  slaves  live  in  clay  cabins." 


THE  SLAVES    SUTFEjJ    FROM     INHUMAN    NEGLECT 
Wirex    SICK. 

In  proof  of  this  wo  subjoin  the  following  testi- 
mony : 

Rev.  Dr.  Channing  of  Boston,  who  once  re- 
sided in  Virginia,  relates  the  following  fact  in  his 
work  on  slaver}',  page  1G3,  1st  edition. 

"  I  cannot  forget  my  feelings  on  visiting  a 
hospital  belonging  to  the  plantation  of  a  gentle- 
man highly  esteemed  Jor  his  virtues,  and  whose 
manners  and  conversation  expressed  much  bene- 
volence and  conscientiousness.  When  I  entered 
with  him  the  hospital,  the  first  object  on  which 
my  eye  fell  was  a  young  woman,  very  ill,  proba- 
bly approaching  death.  She  was  stretched  on 
the  floor.  Her  head  rested  on  something  like  a 
pillow  ;  but  her  body  and  limbs  were  extended  on 
the  hard  boards.  The  owner,  I  doubt  not,  had 
at  least  as  much  kindness  as  myself;  but  he  was 
so  used  to  see  the  slaves  living  without  common 
comforts,  that  the  idea  of  unkindness  in  the  pre- 
sent instance  did  not  enter  his  mind." 

This  dying  young  woman  "  was  stretched  on 
the  floor  " — "  her  body  and  limbs  extended  upon 
the  hard  boards," — and  yet  her  master  "  was 
highly  esteemed  for  his  virtues,"  and  his  general 
demeanor  produced  upon  Dr.  Channing  the  im- 
pression of  "  benevolence  and  conscientiousness." 
If  the  sick  and  dying  female  slaves  of  such  a  mas- 
ter, suffer  such  barbarous  neglect,  whose  heart 
does  not  fail  him,  at  the  thought  of  that  inhu- 
manity, exercised  by  the  majority  of  slaveholders, 
towards  their  aged,  sick,  and  dying  victims. 

The  following  testimony  is  furnished  by  Sarah 
M.  Grimke,  a  sister  of  the  late  Hon.  Thomas  S. 
Grimke,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

"When  the  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society  in 
Charleston,  S.  C,  of  which  I  was  a  visiting  com- 
missioner, first  went  into  operation,  we  were  ap- 
plied to  for  the  rcl'cf  of  several  sick  and  aged  co- 
lored persons  ;  one  ease  I  particularly  remember, 
of  an  aged  woman  who  was  dreadfully  burnt  from 
having  fallen  hito  the  fire  ;  she  was  living  with 
some  free  blacks  who  had  taken  her  in  out  of 
compassion.  On  inquiry,  we  found  tliat  nearly 
all  tiie  colored  persons  who  had  solicited  aid, 
were  slaves,  who  being  no  longer  able  to  work 
for  their  "  owners,"  were  thus  inhumanly  cast 
out  in  their  sickness  and  old  age,  and  must  have 
perished,  but  for  the  kindness  of  their  friends. 

"  I  was  once  visiting  a  sick  slave  in  whose  spi- 
ritual welfare  peculiar  circumstances  had  led  me 
to  be  deeply  interested.  I  knew  that  she  had 
been  early  seduced  from  the  path  of  virtue,  as 
nearly  all  the  female  slaves  are.  I  knew  also 
that  her  mistress,  tliough  a  professor  of  religion, 
had  never  taught  her  a  single  precept  of  Christi- 
anity, yet  that  she  had  had  her  severely  punished 
for  this  departure  from  them,  and  that  the  poor 


girl  was  then  ill  of  an  incurable  disease,  occa. 
sioned  partly  by  her  own  misconduct,  and  partly 
by  the  cruel  treatment  she  had  received,  in  a  situ- 
ation that  called  for  tenderness  and  care.  Her 
heart  seemed  truly  touched  with  repentance  for 
her  sins,  and  she  was  inquiring,  "  What  shall  I 
do  to  be  saved  ?"  I  was  sitting  by  her  as  she  lay 
on  the  floor  upon  a  blanket,  and  was  trying  to 
establish  her  trembling  spirit  in  the  fulness  of 
Jesus,  when  I  heard  the  voice  of  her  mistress  in 
loud  and  angry  tones,  as  she  approached  the  door. 
I  read  in  the  countenance  of  the  prostrate  suffer- 
er, the  terror  which  she  felt  at  the  prospect  of 
seeing  her  mistress.  I  knew  my  presence  would 
be  very  unwelcome,  but  staid,  hoping  that  it 
might  restrain,  in  some  measure,  the  pasfeions 
of  the  mistress.  In  this,  however,  I  was  mista- 
ken; she  passed  mc  without  apparently  observ- 
ing that  I  was  there,  and  sealed  herself  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sick  slave.  She  made  no  inquiry 
how  she  was,  but  in  a  tone  of  anger  commenced 
a  tirade  of  abuse,  violently  reproaching  her  with 
her  past  misconduct,  and  telling  her  in  the  most 
unfeeling  manner,  that  eternal  destruction  await- 
ed her.  No  word  of  kindness  escaped  her. 
What  had  then  roused  her  temper  I  do  not  know. 
She  continued  in  this  strain  several  minutes, 
when  I  atlcmpted  to  soften  her  by  remarking, 

that was  very  ill,  and  she  ought  not  thus 

to  torment  her,  and  that  I  believed  Jesus  had 
granted  her  forgiveness.  But  I  might  as  well 
have  tried  to  stop  the  tempest  in  its  career,  as  to 
calm  the  infuriated  passions  nurtured  by  the  ex- 
ercise of  arbitrary  power.  She  looked  at  me 
with  ineffable  scorn,  and  continued  to  pour  forth 
a  torrent  of  abuse  and  reproach.  Her  helpless 
victim  listened  in  terrified  silence,  until  nature 
could  endure  no  more,  when  she  uttered  a  wild 
shriek,  and  casting  on  her  tormentor  a  look  of 
unutterable  agony,  exclaimed,  '  Oh,  mistress, 
I  am  dying  !'  This  appeal  arrested  her  attention, 
and  she  soon  left  the  room,  but  in  the  same  spirit 
with  which  she  entered  it.  The  girl  survived  but  a 
few  days,  and,  I  believe,  saw  her  mistress  wo  more." 
Mr.  George  A.  Avery,  an  elder  of  a  Presbyte- 
rian church  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  who  lived  some 
years  in  Virginia,  gives  the  following  : 

"  The  manner  of  treating  the  sick  slaves,  and  es- 
pecially in  chronic  cases,  was  to  my  mind  peculiar- 
ly revolting.  My  opportunities  for  observation  in 
this  department  were  better  than  in,  perhaps,  any 
other,  as  the  friend  under  whose  direction  I  com- 
menced my  medical  studies,  enjoyed  a  high  re- 
putation as  a  surgeon.  I  rode  considerably  witli 
him  in  his  practice,  and  assisted  in  the  surgical 
operations  and  dressings  from  time  to  time.  In 
confirmed  cases  of  disease,  it  was  common  for  the 
master  to  place  the  subject  under  ihc  care  of  a 
physician  or  surgeon,  at  wliose  expense  the  pa- 
tient should  be  kept,  and  if  death  ensued  to  the 
patient,  or  the  disease  was  not  cured,  no  com- 
pensation was  to  be  made,  but  if  cured  a  bonus  of 


Personal  NarraHves — Rev.  William  T.  Allan. 


45 


one,  two,  or  three  hundred  dollars  was  to  be 
given.  No  provision  was  made  against  the  bar. 
barity  or  neglect  of  the  physician,  &c.  I  have 
seen  fifteen  or  twenty  of  these  helpless  sufferers 
crowded  together  in  the  true  spirit  of  slaveholding 
inhumanity,  like  the  "  brutes  that  p'jrish,"  and 
driven  from  time  to  time  like  brutes  into  a  com- 
mon yard,  where  they  had  to  suffer  any  and 
every  operation  and  experiment,  which  interest, 
caprice,  or  professional  curiosity  might  prompt, 
— unrestrained  by  law,  public  sentiment,  or  the 
claims  of  common  humanity." 

Rev.  William  T.  Allan,  son  of  Rev.  Dr.  Allan, 
a  slaveholder,  of  Huntsville,  Alabama,  says  in  a 
letter  now  before  us  : 

"  Colonel  Robert  H.  Watkins,  of  Laurence 
county,  Alabama,  who  owned  about  three  hun- 
dred  slaves,  after  employing  a  physician  among 
them  for  some  time,  ceased  to  do  so,  alleging 
as  the  reason,  that  it  was  cheaper  to  lose  a  few 
negroes  every  year  than  to  pay  a  physician. 
This  Colonel  Watkins  was  a  Presidential  elector 
in  1836." 

A.  A.  GcTHRiE,  Esq.,  elder  in  the  Presbyterian 
church  at  Putnam,  Muskingum  county,  Ohio, 
furnishes  the  testimony  which  follows. 

"A  near  female  friend  of  mine  in  company 
with  another  young  lady,  in  attempting  to  visit  a 
sick  woman  on  Washington's  Bottom,  Wood 
county,  Virginia,  missed  the  way,  and  stopping 
to  ask  directions  of  a  group  of  colored  children 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  plantation  of  Francis 
Keen,  Sen.,  they  were  told  to  ask  '  aunty,  in  the 
house.'  On  entering  the  hut,  says  my  inform- 
ant, I  beheld  such  a  sight  as  I  hope  never  to  see 
again ;  its  sole  occupant  was  a  female  slave  of 
the  said  Keen — her  whole  wearing  apparel  con. 
sisted  of  a  frock,  made  of  the  coarsest  tow  cloth, 
and  so  scanty,  that  it  could  not  have  been  made 
more  light  around  her  person.  In  the  hut  there 
was  neither  table,  chair,  nor  chest — a  stool  and  a 
rude  fixture  in  one  corner,  were  all  its  furniture. 
On  this  last  were  a  little  straw  and  a  few  old  rem- 
nants  of  what  had  been  bedding — all  exceedingly 
filthy. 


"  The  woman  thus  situated  had  been  far  viore 
than  a  day  in  travail,  without  any  assistance, 
any  nurse,  or  any  kind  of  proper  provision — 
during  the  night  she  said  some  fellow  slave  wo- 
man would  stay  with  her,  and  the  aforesaid 
children  through  the  day.  From  a  woman,  who 
was  a  slave  of  Keen's  at  the  same  time,  my  in- 
formant learned,  tliat  this  poor  woman  suffered  for 
three  days,  and  then  died — when  too  late  to  save 
her  life  her  master  sent  assistance.  It  was  un- 
derstood to  be  a  rule  of  his,  to  neglect  his  women 
entirely  in  such  times  of  trial,  unless  they  previ- 
ously came  and  informed  him,  and  asked  for  aid." 

Rev.  Phineas  Smith,  of  Centreville,  N.  Y., 
who  has  resided  four  years  at  the  south,  says : 
"  Often  when  the  slaves  are  sick,  their  accus- 
tomed toil  is  exacted  from  them.  Physicians  are 
rarely  called  for  their  benefit." 

Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  minister  of  the  Me- 
thodist Episcopal  church  in  Marlborough,  Mass., 
who  resided  a  number  of  years  in  Georgia,  says  : 

"  Another  dark  side  of  slavery  is  the  neglect 
of  the  aged  and  sick.  Many  when  sick,  are 
suspected  by  their  masters  of  feigning  sickness, 
and  are  therefore  whipped  out  to  work  after  dis- 
ease has  got  fast  hold  of  them  ;  when  the  mas- 
ters learn,  that  they  are  really  sick,  they  are  in 
many  instances  left  alone  in  their  cabins  during 
work  hours  ;  not  a  few  of  the  slaves  are  left  to 
die  without  having  one  friend  to  wipe  off  the 
sweat  of  death.  When  the  slaves  are  sick,  the 
masters  do  not,  as  a  general  thing,  employ  physi- 
cians,  but  "  doctor "  them  themselves,  and  their 
mode  of  practice  in  almost  all  cases  is  to  bleed 
and  give  salts.  When  women  are  confined  they 
have  no  physician,  but  are  committed  to  the  care 
of  ."^lave  midwives.  Slaves  complain  very  little 
when  sick,  when  they  die  they  are  frequently  bu- 
ried at  night  without  much  ceremony,  and  in 
many  instances  without  any ;  their  colBns  are 
made  by  nailing  together  rough  boards,  frequent-  ; 
ly  with  their  feet  sticking  out  at  the  end,  and  ! 
sometimes  they  are  put  into  the  ground  without  a 
coffin  or  box  of  any  kind. 


PERSONAL  NARRATIVES-PART   II. 

TESTIMONY   OF    THE    REV.  WILLIAM   T.    ALLAN,  LATE    OF    ALABAMA. 


Mr.  Allan  is  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Allan,  a 
slaveholder  and  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
at  Huntsville,  Alabama.  He  has  recently  become 
the  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Chat- 
ham, Illinois. 

"  I  was  born  and  have  lived  most  of  my  life  in 
the  slave  statcs,mainly  in  the  village  of  Huntsville, 
Alabama,  where  my  parents  still  reside.  I  seldom 
went  to  a  plantation,  and  as  my  visits  were  con- 
fined almost  exclusively  to  the  families  of  pro- 
fessing Christians,  my  personal  knowledge  of 
slavery,  was  consequently  a  knowledge  of  its 
fairest  side,  (if  fairest  may  be  predicated  of  foul.) 

"  There  was  one  plantation  just  opposite  my 


father's  house  in  the  suburbs  of  Huntsville  be- 
longing  to  Judge  Smith,  formerly  a  Senator  in 
Congress  from  South  Carolina,  now  of  Hunts- 
ville. The  name  of  his  overseer  was  Tunc.  I 
have  often  seen  him  flogging  the  slaves  in  the 
field,  and  have  often  heard  their  cries.  Sometimes, 
too,  I  have  met  them  with  the  tears  streaming 
down  their  faces,  and  the  marks  of  the  whip, 
('  whelks,')  on  their  bare  necks  and  sJioulders. 
Tune  was  so  severe  in  his  treatment,  that  his 
employer  dismissed  him  after  two  or  three  years, 
lost,  it  was  said,  he  sliould  kill  off  all  the  slaves. 
But  he  was  immediately  employed  by  another 
planter  in  the  neighborhood.  'I'he  followmg  fact 
was  stated  to  me  by  my  brother,  James  M.  Allan, 


46 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  William  T.  Allan. 


now  residinjy  at  Richmond,  Henry  county,  Illi- 
nois, and  clerk  of  the  circuit  and  county  courts. 
Tunc  became  displeased  with  one  of  the  women 
who  was  pregnant,  he  made  her  lay  down  over  a 
log,  with  her  iace  towards  the  ground,  and  beat 
her  so  unmercifully,  that  she  was  soon  after  de- 
livered of  a  dead  child. 

"  My  brother  also  stated  to  me  the  following, 
which  occurred  near  my  father's  house,  and  with- 
in sight  and  hearing  of  the  academy  and  public 
garden.  Charles,  a  fine  active  negro,  who  be- 
longed to  a  bricklayer  in  Huntsville,  exchanged 
the  burning  sun  of  the  brickyard  to  enjoy  for  a 
season  tlie  pleasant  shade  of  an  adjacent  moun- 
tain. When  his  master  got  him  back,  he  tied 
him  by  his  hands  so  that  his  feet  could  just  touch 
the  ground — stripped  off  his  clothes,  took  a  pad- 
dle, bor.d  full  of  holes,  and  paddled  him  leisurely 
all  day  long.  It  was  two  weeks  before  they  could 
tell  whether  he  would  live  or  die.  Neither  of 
these  cases  attracted  any  particular  notice  in 
Huntsville. 

"  While  I  lived  in  Huntsville  a  slave  was  killed 
in  the  mountain  near  by.  The  circumstances 
were  these.  A  white  man  (James  Helton)  hunt- 
ing in  the  woods,  suddenly  came  upon  a  black 
man,  and  commanded  him  to  stop,  the  slave  kept 
on  running,  Helton  fired  his  rifle  and  the  negro 
was  killed.* 

"  Mrs.  Barr,  wife  of  Rev.H.  Barr  of  Carrollton, 
Illinois,  formerly  from  Courtland,  Alabama,  told 
me  last  spring,  that  she  has  very  often  stopped 
her  ears  that  she  might  not  hear  the  screams  of 
slaves  who  were  under  the  lash,  and  that  some- 
times she  has  left  her  house,  and  retired  to  a  place 
more  distant,  in  order  to  get  away  from  their 
agonizing  cries. 

"  I  have  often  seen  groups  of  slaves  on  the  pub- 
lic squares  in  Huntsville,  who  were  to  be  sold  at 
auction,  and  I  have  often  seen  their  tears  gush 
forth  and  their  countenances  distorted  with  an- 
guish. A  considerable  number  were  generally 
sold  publicly  every  month. 

"  The  following  facts  I  have  just  taken  down 
from  the  lips  of  Mr.  L.  Turner,  a  regular  and 
respectable  member  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Springfield,  our  county  town.  He  was 
born  and  brought  up  in  Caroline  county,  Vir. 
ginia.  He  says  that  the  slaves  are  neither  con- 
sidered nor  treated  as  human  beings.  One  of  his 
neighbors  whose  name  was  Barr,  he  says,  on  one 
occasion  stripped  a  slave  and  lacerated  his  back 
with  a  handcard  (for  cotton  or  wool)  and  then 
washed  it  with  salt  and  water,  with  pepper  in  it. 
Mr.  Turner  saio  this.  He  further  remarked  that 
he  believed  there  were  many  slaves  there  in  ad- 
vanced  life  whose  backs  had  never  been  well 
since  they  began  to  work. 

*  This  murder  was  committed  about  twelve  years  since. 
At  tliat  time,  James  G.  Birnoy,  Esq.,  now  Correspondinr;  Se- 
cretary of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  the  So- 
licitor (prosccining  attorney)  for  that  judicial  district. 
His  vir^w^  and  f(i-linj;s  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  were, 
even  at  that  period,  in  advance  of  llie  mass  of  slaveholders, 
and  he  (Klrrniined  ifpossible  to  brinp  the  nnirderer  to  justice. 
He  accordinply  drew  up  an  indictment  and  procured  the 
findinc  of  atrue  bill  against  Helton.  Helton,  meanwhile, 
moved  over  the  line  into  the  state  of  T(nne.sse<\  and  such 
was  the  apathy  of  the  community,  individual  etfori  proved 
unavailing ;  and  thougli  the  murderer  had  gone  no  further 
than  to  an  adjoining  county  (where  perhaps  he  still  resides) 
Ue  was  never  brou^t  to  trial. — £d. 


♦'  He  stated  that  one  of  his  uncles  had  killed  a 
woman — broke  her  skull  with  an  a.x  helve  :  she 
had  insulted  her  mistress!  No  notice  was  taken 
of  the  afTair.  Mr.  T.  said,  fmther,  that  slaves 
were  frequently  murdered. 

"  He  men  Lioned  the  case  of  one  slaveholder, 
whom  he  had  seen  lay  his  slaves  on  a  large  log, 
which  he  kept  for  the  purpose,  strip  them,  tie 
them  with  the  face  downward,  then  have  a  ket- 
tle of  hot  water  brought — take  the  paddle,  made 
of  hard  wood,  and  perforated  with  holes,  dip  it 
into  the  hot  water  and  strike — before  every  blow 
dipping  it.  into  the  water — every  hole  at  every 
blow  would  raise  a  '  whelk.'  This  was  the  usual 
punishment  for  running  awny, 

"  Another  slaveholder  had  a  slave  who  had  often 
run  away,  and  often  been  severely  whipped. 
After  one  of  his  floggings  he  burnt  his  master's 
barn  :  this  so  enraged  tjie  man,  that  when  he 
caught  him  he  took  a  pair  of  pincers  and  puUed 
his  toe  nails  out.  The  negro  then  murdered  two 
of  his  master's  children.  He  was  taken  after 
a  desperate  pursuit,  (having  been  shot  through  - 
the  shoulder)  and  hung. 

"  One  of  Mr.  Turner's  cousins,  was  employed  as 
overseer  on  a  large  plantation  in  Mississippi.  On 
a  certain  morning  he  called  the  slaves  together, 
to  give  some  orders.  While  doing  it,  a  slave 
came  running  out  of  his  cabin,  having  a  knife 
in  his  hand  and  eating  his  breakfast.  The  over- 
seer seeing  him  coming  with  the  knife,  was  some- 
what alarmed,  and  instantly  raised  his  gun  and 
shot  him  dead.  He  said  afterwards,  that  he  be- 
lieved the  slave  was  perfectly  innocent  of  any 
evil  intentions,  he  came  out  hastily  to  hear  the 
orders  whilst  eating.  No  notice  was  taken  of  the 
killing. 

"  Mr.  T.  related  the  whipping  habits  of  one  of 
his  uncles  in  Virginia.  He  was  a  wealthy  man, 
had  a  splendid  house  and  grounds.  A  tree  in 
his  front  yard,  was  used  as  a  whipping  post. 
When  a  slave  was  to  be  punished,  he  would  fre- 
quently invite  some  of  his  friends,  have  a  table, 
cards  and  wine  set  out  under  the  shade  ;  he 
would  then  flog  his  slave  a  little  while,  and  then 
play  cards  and  drink  with  his  friends,  occasion- 
ally taunting  the  slave,  giving  him  the  privilege 
of  confessing  such  and  such  things,  al  his  lei. 
sure,  after  a  while  flog  him  again,  thus  keeping 
it  up  for  hours  or  half  the  day,  and  sometimes 
all  day.     This  was  his  habit. 

^^ February  Ath. — Since  writing  the  preceding.  I 
have  been  to  Carrollton,  on  a  visit  to  my  uncle;. 
Rev.  Hugh  Barr,  who  was  originally  from  Ten-  | 
nessee,  lived  12  or  14  years  in  Courtland,  Law-  ' 
rence  county,  Alabama,  and  moved  to  Illinois  in 
1835.  In  conversation  with  the  family,  around 
the  fireside,  they  stated  a  multitude  of  horrid 
facts,  that  were  perfectly  notorious  ui  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Courtland. 

"  William  P.  Barr,  an  intelligent  young  man, 
and  member  of  his  father's  church  in  Carroll- 
ton, stated  the  following.  Visiting  at  a  Mr. 
Mosely's,  near  Courtland,  William  Moselj'  came 
in  with  a  bloody  knife  in  his  hand,  having  just 
stabbed  a  negro  man.  The  negro  was  sitting 
quietly  in  a  house  in  the  village,  keeping  a  woman 
company  who  had  been  left  in  charge  of  the 
house, — when  Mosely,  passing  along,  went  in 
and  demanded  his  business  there.     Probably  his 


Personal  JSarratives — Rev.  William  T.  Allan. 


47 


answer  was  not  as  civil  as  slaveholding  requires, 
and  Mosely  rushed  upon  him  and  stat)bed  him. 
The  wound  laid  him  up  for  a  season.  Mosely 
•A-a3  called  to  no  account  for  it.  When  he  came 
in  with  the  bloody  knife,  he  said  he  wished  he 
had  killed  him. 

'•Jolin  Brown,  a  slaveholder,  and  a  memberof 
tlie  Presbyterian  church  in  Courtland,  Alabama, 
stated  the  following  a  few  weeks  since,  in  Car- 
roliton.  A  man  near  Courtland,  of  the  name  of 
Thompson,  recentlj'  shot  a  negro  woman  through 
the  head ;  and  put  the  pistol  so  close  that  her 
hair  was  singed.  He  did  it  in  consequence  of 
some  difficulty  in  his  dealings  with  her  as  a  con- 
cubine. He  buried  her  in  a  log  heap  ;  she  was 
discovered  by  the  buzzards  gatliering  around  it. 

"  William  P.  Barr  stated  the  following,  as  facts 
well  known  in  the  neighborhood  of  Courtland, 
but  not  witnessed  by  himself.  Two  men,  by  the 
name  of  Wilson,  found  a  tine  looking  negro  man 
at  '  Dandridge's  Quarter,'  without  a  pass ;  and 
flogged  him  so  that  he  died  in  a  short  time. 
They  were  not  punished. 

"  Col.  Blocker's  overseer  attempted  to  flog  a 
negro — he  refused  to  be  flogged  ;  whereupon  the 
overseer  seized  an  axe,  and  cleft  his  skull.  The 
Colonel  justiiicd  it. 

"  One  Jones  whipped  a  woman  to  death  for 
'  grabbling'  a  potato  hill.  He  owned  80  or  100 
negroes.  His  own  children  could  not  live  with 
him. 

"A  man  in  the  neighborhood  of  Courtland,  Ala- 
bama, by  the  name  of  Puryear,  was  so  proverbi- 
ally cruel  that  among  the  negroes  he  wasVsually 
called  *  the  Devil.'  Mrs.  Barr,  wife  of  Rev.  H. 
Barr,  was  at  Purycar's  house,  and  saw  a  negro 
girl  about  13  years  old,  waiting  around  the  table, 
with  a  single  garment — and  that  in  cold  weather  ; 
arms  and  feet  bare — feet  wretchedly  swollen — 
arms  burnt,  and  fall  of  sores  from  exposm-e.  All 
tlie  negroes  under  his  care  made  a  wretched  ap- 
pearance. 

"Col.  Robert  H.  Watkinshada  runaway  slave, 
who  was  called  Jim  Dragon.  Before  he  was 
caught  the  last  time,  he  had  been  out  a  year, 
witfiin  a  few  miles  of  his  master's  plantation.  He 
never  stole  from  any  one  but  his  master,  except 
when  necessity  compelled  him.  He  said  he 
had  a  right  to  take  from  his  master  ;  and  when 
tarken,  that  he  had,  whilst  out,  seen  his  master  a 
hundred  times.  Having  been  whipped,  clogged 
with  irons,  and  yoked,  he  was  set  at  work  in  the 
field.  Col.  Watkins  worked  about  300  hands — 
generally  had  one  negro  out  hunting  runaways. 
After  employing  a  physician  for  some  time 
among  his  negroes,  he  ceased  to  do  so,  alleging 
as  the  reason,  that  it  was  cheaper  to  lose  a  few 
negroes  every  year  than  to  pay  a  physician.  He 
was  a  Presidential  elector  in  1836. 

"  Col.  Ben  Sherrod,  another  large  planter  in  that 
neighborhood,  is  remarkable  for  his  kindness  to 
his  slaves.  He  said  to  Rev.  Mr.  Barr,  that  he 
had  no  doubt  he  should  be  rewarded  in  heaven 
for  his  kindness  to  his  slaves  ;  and  yet  his  over- 
seer. Walker,  had  to  sleep  with  loaded  pistols, 
for  fear  of  assassination.     Three  of  the  slaves  at- 


tempted to  kill  him  once,  because  of  his  treat- 
ment of  their  wives. 

"  Old  Major  Billy  Watkins  Vv'as  noted  for  his  se- 
verity. I  well  remember,  when  he  lived  in  Mad- 
ison county,  to  have  often  heard  him  yell  at  his 
negroes  with  the  most  savage  fury.  He  would 
stand  at  his  house,  and  watch  the  slaves  picking 
cotton  ;  and  if  any  of  them  straitened  their  backs 
for  a  moment,  his  savage  yeU  would  ring,  '  bend 
your  backs.' 

"  Mrs.  Barr  stated,  that  Mrs.  H ,  of  Court- 

land,  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  sent 
a  little  negro  girl  to  jail,  suspecting  that  she  liad 
attempted  to  put  poison  into  the  water  pail.  The 
fact  was,  that  the  child  had  found  a  vial,  and 
was  playing  in  the  water.  This  same  woman 
(in  high  standing  too,)  told  the  Rev.  Mr.  McMil- 
lan, tliat  she  could  '  cut  Arthur  Tappan's  throat 
from  ear  to  ear.' 

"  The  clothing  of  slaves  is  in  many  cases  com- 
fortable, and  in  many  it  is  far  from  being  so.  I 
have  very  often  seen  slaves,  wliose  tattered  rags 
were  neither  comfortable  nor  decent. 

"  Their  huts  are  sometimes  comfortable,  but 
generally  they  are  miserable  hovels,  where  male 
and  female  are  herded  promiscuously  together. 

"  As  to  the  usual  allowance  of  food  on  the  plan- 
tations in  North  Alabama,  I  cannot  speak  confi- 
dently, from  personal  knowledge.  There  was  a 
slave  named  Hadley,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  vis- 
iting my  father's  slaves  occasionally.  He  had 
run  away  several  times.  His  reason  was,  as  he 
stated,  that  they  would  not  give  him  any  meat — 
said  he  could  not  work  without  meat.  The  last 
time  I  saw  him,  he  had  quite  a  heavy  iron  3'okc 
on  his  neck,  the  two  prongs  twelve  or  fifteen 
inches  long,  extending  out  over  his  shoulders  and 
bending  upwards. 

"Z(eg"flZ  marriage  is  unknown  among  the  slaves, 
they  sometimes  have  a  marriage  form — generally, 
however,  none  at  all.  The  pastor  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  Huntsville,  had  two  families  of 
slaves  when  I  left  there.  One  couple  were  mar. 
ried  by  a  negro  preacher — the  man  was  robbed 
of  his  wife  a  number  of  months  afterwards,  by 
her  ' owner. ^  The  other  couple  just  'took  up 
together,'  without  any  form  of  marriage.  They 
are  both  members  of  churches — the  man  a  Bap- 
tist deacon,  sober  and  correct  in  his  deportment. 
They  have  a  large  family  of  children — all  child- 
ren of  concubinage — living  in  a  minister's  family. 

"  If  these  statements  are  deemedof  any  value  by 
you,  in  forwarding  your  glorious  enterprize,  you 
are  at  liberty  to  use  them  as  you  please.  Tlie 
great  wrong  is  enslaving  a  man  ;  all  other  wrongs 
are  pigmies,  compared  with  that.  Facts  might 
be  gathered  abundantl)',  to  show  that  it  is  slavery 
itself,  and  not  cruelties  merely,  that  make  slaves 
unhappy.  Even  those  that  are  most  kindly  treat- 
ed, are  generally  far  from  being  happy.  The 
slaves  in  my  father's  family  are  almost  as  kindly 
treated  as  slaves  can  be,  yet  they  pant  for  liberty 

"  May  the  Lord  guide  you  in  this  great  move 
ment.  In  behalf  of  the  perishing. 

Your  friend  and  brother, 

W^ijLLiAM  T.  Allan." 


48 


Personal  Narratives — William  Leftwich. 


NARRATIVE   OF  MR.   WILLIAM   LEFTWICH,  A  NATIVE   OF  VIRGINIA 


Mr.  Leftwich  is  a  grandson  of  Gen.  Jabez 
Leftwich,  who  was  for  some  years  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Virginia.  Though  bom  in  Vir- 
ginia, he  has  resided  most  of  his  hfe  in  Alabama. 
He  now  Hvcs  in  DeUii,  Hamilton  comity,  Ohio, 
near  Cincinnati. 

As  an  introduction  to  his  letter,  the  reader  is 
furnished  with  the  following  testimonial  to  his 
character,  from  the  Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  pastor 
of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Delhi.  Mr.  B. 
says  : 

"  Mr.  Leftwich  is  a  worthy  member  of  this 
church,  and  is  a  young  man  of  sterling  integrity 
and  veracity.  H,  Bushnell." 

The  following  is  the  letter  of  Mr.  Leftwich, 
dated  Dec.  26,  1838. 

"  Dear  Brother — Though  I  am  not  ranked 
among  the  abolitionists,  yet  I  cannot,  as  a  friend 
of  humanity,  withhold  from  the  public  such  facts 
in  relation  to  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  as  have 
fallen  under  my  own  observation.  That  I  am 
somewhat  acquainted  with  slavery  will  be  seen, 
as  I  narrate  some  incidents  of  my  own  life.  My 
parents  were  slaveholders,  and  moved  from  Vir- 
ginia to  Madison  county,  Alabama,  during  my  in- 
fancy. My  mother  soon  fell  a  victim  to  the  cli- 
mate. Being  the  youngest  of  the  children,  I  was 
left  in  the  care  of  my  aged  grandfather,  who 
never  held  a  slave,  though  his  sons  owned  from 
90  to  100  during  the  time  I  resided  with  him. 
As  soon  as  I  could  carry  a  hoe,  my  uncle,  by  the 
name  of  Neely,  persuaded  my  grandfather  that 
1  should  be  placed  in  his  hands,  and  brought  up 
in  habits  of  industry.  I  was  accordingly  placed 
under  his  tuition.  I  left  the  domestic  circle,  little 
dreaming  of  the  horrors  that  awaited  mc.  My 
mother's  own  brother  took  me  to  the  cotton  field, 
there  to  learn  habits  of  industry,  and  to  be  bene- 
fited by  his  counsels.  But  the  sequel  proved,  that 
I  was  there  to  feel  in  my  own  person,  and  witness 
by  experience  many  of  the  horrors  of  slavery. 
Instead  of  kind  admonition,  I  was  to  endure  the 
frowns  of  one,  whose  sympathies  could  neither 
be  reached  by  the  prayers  and  cries  of  his  slaves, 
nor  by  the  entreaties  and  sufferings  of  a  sister's 
son.  Let  those  who  call  slaveholders  kind,  hos- 
pitable and  humane,  mark  the  course  the 
slaveholder  pursues  with  one  born  free,  whose 
ancestors  fought  and  bled  for  liberty ;  and  then 
say,  if  they  can  without  a  blush  of  shame,  that 
he  who  robs  the  helpless  of  every  right,  can  be 
truly  kind  and  hospitable. 

"  In  a  short  time  after  I  was  put  upon  the  plan- 
tation, there  was  but  little  difference  between  mo 
and  the  slaves,  except  being  white,  I  ate  at  the 
master's  table.  The  slaves  were  my  compan- 
ions in  misery,  and  I  well  learned  their  condition, 
both  in  the  house  and  field.  Their  dwellings  are 
log  huts,  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  square ;  often 
without  windows,  doors  or  floors.  They  have 
neither  chairs,  tables  or  bedsteads.  These  huts 
are  occupied  by  eight,  ten    or  twelve   persons 


each.  Their  bedding  generally  consists  of  two 
old  blankets.  Many  of  them  sleep  night  after 
night  sitting  upon  their  blocks  or  stools;  others 
sleep  in  the  open  air.  Our  task  was  appointed, 
and  from  dawn  till  dark  all  must  bend  to  their 
work.  Their  meals  were  taken  without  knife  or 
plate,  dish  or  spoon.  Their  food  was  corn  pone, 
prepared  in  the  coarsest  manner,  with  a  small 
allowance  of  meat.  Their  meals  in  the  field 
were  taken  from  the  hands  of  the  carrier,  wher- 
ever he  found  them,  with  no  more  ceremony  than 
in  the  feeding  of  swine.  My  uncle  was  his  own 
overseer.  For  punishing  in  the  field,  he  preferred 
a  large  hickory  stick ;  and  wo  to  him  whoso 
work  was  not  done  to  please  him,  for  the  hicko- 
ry was  used  upon  our  heads  as  remorselessly  as 
if  we  had  been  mad  dogs.  I  was  often  the  object 
of  his  fury,  and  shall  bear  the  marks  of  it  on  my 
body  till  I  die.  Such  was  my  suffering  and  de-' 
gradation,  that  at  the  end  of  five  years,  I  hardly 
dared  to  say  I  was/rce.  When  thinning  cotton, 
we  went  mostly  on  our  knees.  One  day,  while 
thus  engaged,  my  uncle  found  my  row  behind  ; 
and,  by  way  of  admonition,  gave  mc  a  few  blows 
with  his  hickory,  the  marks  of  which  I  carried 
for  weeks.  Often  I  followed  the  example  of  the 
fugitive  slaves,  and  betook  myself  to  the  moun- 
tains; but  hunger  and  fear  drove  me  back,  to 
share,  with  the  wretched  slave  his  toil  and  stripes. 
But  I  have  talked  enough  about  my  own  bond- 
age ;  I  will  now  relate  a  few  facts,  showing  tlie 
condition  of  the  slaves  generally. 

''  My  uncle  wishing  to  purchase  what  is  called 
a  good  '  house  wench,'  a  trader  in  human  flesh 
soon  produced  a  woman,  recommending  her  as 
highly  as  ever  a  jockey  did  a  horse.  She  was 
purchased,  but  on  trial  was  found  wanting  in  the 
requisite  qualifications.  She  then  fell  a  victim 
to  the  disappointed  rage  of  my  uncle  ;  innocent 
or  guilty,  she  suffered  greatly  from  his  fury.  He 
used  to  tie  her  to  a  peach  tree  in  the  yard,  and 
whip  her  till  there  was  no  sound  place  to  lay  another 
stroke,  and  repeat  it  so  often  that  her  back  was 
kept  continually  sore.  Whipping  the  females 
around  the  legs,  was  a  favorite  mode  of  punish- 
ment with  him.  They  must  stand  and  hold  up 
their  clothes,  while  he  plied  his  hickory.  He  did 
not,  like  some  of  his  neighbors,  keep  a  pack  of 
hounds  for  hunting  runaway  negroes,  but  he  kept 
one  dog  for  that  purpose,  and  when  he  came  up 
with  a  runaway,  it  would  have  been  death  t<i 
attempt  to  fly,  and  it  was  nearly  so  to  stand. 
Sometimes,  when  my  uncle  attempted  to  whip 
the  slaves,  the  dog  would  rush  upon  them  and 
relieve  them  of  their  rags,  if  not  of  their  flesh. 
One  object  of  my  uncle's  special  hate  was  "Jer- 
ry," a  slave  of  a  proud  spirit.  He  defied  all  the 
curses,  rage  and  str.ipes  of  his  tyrant.  Though 
he  was  often  overpowered — for  my  uncle  would 
frequently  wear  out  his  stick  upon  his  head — yet 
he  woidd  never  submit.  As  he  was  not  expert 
in  picking  cotton,  he  would  sometimes  run  away 
in  the  fall,  to  escape  abuse.  At  one  time,  after 
an  absence  of  some  months,  he  was  arrested 
and  brought  back.     As  is  customary,  he  was 


Personal  Narratives — Samuel  Sapington. 


49 


(stripped,  tied  to  a  log,  and  the  cow-skin  applied 
to  .'lis  naked  body  till  his  master  was  exhausted. 
Then  a  large  log  chain  was  fastened  around  one 
ankle,  passed  up  his  back,  over  his  shoulders,  then 
across  his  breast,  and  fastened  under  his  arm.  In 
this  condition  ho  was  forced  to  pirforrn  his  daily 
task.  Add  to  this  he  was  chained  each  night, 
and  compelled  to  chop  wood  every  Sabbath,  to 
make  up  lost  time.  After  being  thus  manacled 
for  some  months,  he  was  released — but  his  spirit 
was  unsubdued.  Soon  after,  his  master,  in  a  pa- 
roxysm of  rage,  fell  upon  him,  wore  out  his  stafl" 
upon  liis  head,  loaded  him  again  with  chains,  and 
after  a  month,  sold  him  fartlier  south.  Another 
slave,  by  tiie  name  of  Mince,  who  was  a  man  of 
great  strength,  purloined  some  bacon  on  a  Christ- 
mas eve.  It  was  m'^ssed  in  the  morning,  and  he 
being  absent,  was  of  course  suspected.  On  re- 
turning home,  my  uncle  commanded  him  to 
come  to  him,  but  he  refused.  The  master  strove 
in  vain  to  lay  hands  on  him  ;  in  vain  he  ordered 
!iis  slaves  to  seize  him — they  dired  not.  At 
length  the  master  hurled  a  stone  at  his  head 
sufficient  to  have  felled  a  bullock — but  he  did  not 
heed  it.  At  that  instant  my  aunt  sprang  for- 
ward, and  presenting  the  gun  to  my  uncle,  ex- 
claimed, '  Shoot  him  !  shoot  him  !'  He  made 
the  attempt,  but  the  gun  missed  fire,  and  Mince 


fled.  Ho  was  taken  eight  or  ten  months  after 
that,  while  crossing  the  Ohio.  When  brought 
back,  the  master,  and  an  overseer  on  another 
plantation,  took  him  to  the  mountain  and  pun- 
ished him  to  their  satisfaction  in  secret ;  after 
which  he  was  loaded  with  chains  and  set  to  his 
task. 

"  I  have  spent  nearly  all  my  life  in  the  midst  of 
slavery.  From  being  the  son  of  a  slaveholder,  I 
descended  to  the  condition  of  a  slave,  and  from 
that  condition  I  rose  (if  you  please  to  call  it  so,) 
to  the  station  of  a  '  driver.'  I  have  lived  in 
Alabama,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky ;  and  I 
know  the  condition  of  the  slaves  to  bo  that  of 
unmixed  wretchedness  and  degradation.  And 
on  the  part  of  slaveholders,  there  is  cruelty  untold. 
The  labor  of  the  slave  is  constant  toil,  wrung  out 
by  fear.  Their  food  is  scanty,  and  taken  without 
comfort.  Their  clothes  answer  the  purposes  nei- 
ther of  comfort  nor  decency.  Thcj'  are  not  allow- 
ed to  read  or  write.  Whether  they  may  worship  God 
or  not,  depends  on  the  will  of  the  master.  The 
young  children,  until  they  can  work,  often  go 
naked  during  the  warm  weather.  I  could  spend 
months  in  detailing  the  sufferings,  degradation 
and  cruelty  inflicted  upon  slaves.  But  my  soul 
sickens  at  the  remembrance  of  these  things." 


TESTIMONY   OF  MR,   LEMUEL   SAPINGTON,    A    NATIVE    OF  MARYLAND. 


Air.  Sapington,  is  a  repentant  "  soul  driver"  or 
slave  trader,  novir  a  citizen  of  Lancaster,  Pa. 
He  gives  the  following  testimony  in  a  letter 
dated,  Jan.  21,  1839. 

"  I  was  born  in  Maryland,  afterwards  moved  to 
Virginia,  where  I  commenced  the  business 
of  farming  and  trafficking  in  slaves.  In  my 
neighborhood  the  slaves  were  '  quartered.'  The 
description  generally  given  of  negro  quarters  is 
correct.  The  quarters  are  without  floors,  and 
not  sufficient  to  keep  off  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  they  are  uncomfortable  both  in  summer 
and  winter.  The  food  there  consists  of  potatoes, 
pork,  and  com,  which  were  given  to  them  daily, 
by  weight  and  measure.  The  sexes  were  hud- 
dled together  promiscuously.  Their  clothing  is 
made  by  tliemselves  after  night,  though  some- 
times assisted  by  the  old  women  who  are  no 
longer  able  to  do  out  door  work,  consequently  it 
is  harsh  and  uncomfortable.  I  have  frequently 
seen  those  of  both  sexes  who  have  not  attained 
the  age  of  twelve  years  go  nak-^d.  Their  pun- 
ishments are  invariably  cruel.  For  the  slightest 
offence,  such  as  taking  a  hen's  egg,  I  have  seen 
them  stripped  and  suspended  by  their  bands, 
their  feet  tied  together,  a  fence  rail  of  ordinary 
f;iz3  placed  between  their  ankles,  and  then  most 
cruellj'  whipped,  until,  from  head  to  foot,  they 
v/ere  completely  lacerated,  a  pickle  made  for  the 
purpose  of  salt  and  water,  would  then  be  appli- 
ed by  3  fellow-slave,  for  the  purpose  of  healing 
the  wounds  as  well  as  giving  pain.  Then  taken 
down  snd  without  the  least  respite  sent  to  work 
with  their  hoe. 

Pursuing  my  assumed  right  of  driving  souls,  I 
4 


went  to  the  Southern  part  of  Virginia  for  the 
purpose  of  tratficking  in  slaves.  In  that  part  of 
the  state,  the  cruelties  practised  upon  the  slaves, 
arc  far  greater  than  where  I  lived.  The  pun- 
ishments there  often  resulted  in  death  to  the 
slave.  There  was  no  law  for  the  negro,  but 
that  of  the  overseer's  whip.  In  that  part  of 
the  country,  the  slaves  receive  nothing  for  food, 
but  corn  in  the  ear,  which  has  to  be  prepared 
for  baking  after  working  hours,  by  grinding  it 
with  a  hand-mill.  This  they  take  to  the  fields 
\vith  them,  and  prepare  it  for  eating,  by  holding 
it  on  their  hoes,  over  a  fire  made  by  a  stump. 
Among  the  gangs,  are  often  young  women,  who 
bring  their  children  to  the  fields,  and  lay  them  in 
a  fence  corner,  while  they  are  at  work,  only  being 
permitted  to  nurse  them  at  tlie  option  of  the 
overseer.  When  a  child  is  three  weeks  old,  a 
woman  is  considered  in  working  order.  I  have 
seen  a  woman,  with  her  young  child  strapped  to 
her  back,  laboring  the  whole  day,  beside  a  man, 
perhaps  the  father  of  the  child,  and  he  not  being 
permitted  to  give  her  any  assistance,  himself  being 
under  the  whip.  The  uncommon  humanity  of 
the  driver  allowing  her  the  comfort  of  doing  so. 
I  was  then  selling  a  drove  of  slaves,  which  I  had 
brought  by  water  from  Baltimore,  my  conscience 
not  allowing  me  to  drive,  as  was  generally  the 
case  uniting  the  slaves  by  collars  and  chains, 
and  thus  driving  them  under  the  whip.  About 
that  time  an  unaccountable  something,  which  I 
now  know  was  an  interposition  of  Providence, 
prevented  me  from  prosecuting  any  fartlier 
this  unholy  traffic ;  but  though  I  had  quitted  it,  I 
still  continued  to  live  in  a  slave  state,  witnessing 
every  day  its  evil  effects  upon  my  fellow  beings. 


50 


Personal  Narratives — William  C.  Gildersleeve. 


Among  which  was  a  heart-rending  scone  that 
took  place  in  my  father's  house,  which  led  me 
to  leave  a  elavc  state,  as  well  as  all  the  imagina- 
ry  comforts  arising  from  slaver}'.  On  pre[)aring 
for  m}'  removal  to  the  state  of  Pennsylvania,  it 
became  necessary  for  mc  to  go  to  Louisville,  in 
Kentucky,  where,  if  possible,  I  became  more 
horrified  with  the  impositions  practiced  upon  the 
negro  than  before.  There  a  slave  was  sold  to 
go    farther  south,   and  was  hand-cuffed  for  the 


purpose  of  keeping  him  secure.  But  choosing 
death  rather  than  slavery,  he  jumped  overboard 
and  was  drowned.  When  I  returned  four  weeks 
afterwards  his  body,  that  had  floated  three  miles 
below,  was  yet  unburied.  One  fact;  it  is  im- 
possible for  a  person  to  pass  through  a  slave 
state,  if  he  has  eyes  open,  without  beholding  «very 
day  cruelties  repugnant  to  humanity. 
Respectfully   Yours, 

Lemuel  Sapi.ngton. 


TESTIMONY   OF   MRS.   NANCY    LOWRY,  A   NATIVE    OF  KENTUCKY. 


Mrs.  Lowry,  is  a  member  of  the  non-conform- 
ist church  in  Osnaburg,  Stark  County,  Ohio., 
ehc  is  n  native  of  Kentucky.  We  have  received 
from  her  the  following  testimony. 

"  I  resided  in  the  family  of  Reuben  Long,  the 
principal  part  of  the  time,  from  seven  to  twenty- 
two  years  of  age.  Mr.  Long  had  16  slaves, 
among  whom  were  three  who  were  treated 
with  severity,  although  Mr.  Long  was  thought 
to  be  a  very  humane  master.'  These  three,  namely 
John,  Ned,  and  James,  had  wives ;  John  and 
Ned  had  theirs  at  some  distance,  but  James  had 
his  with  him.  All  three  died  a  premature  death, 
and  it  was  generally  believed  by  his  neighbors, 
that  extreme  vi'hipping  was  the  cause.  I  believe 
so  too.  Ned  died  about  the  age  of  25  and  John 
34  or  35.  The  caui=;c  of  their  flogging  was  com- 
monly staying  a  little  over  the  time,  with  their 
wives.  Mr.  Long  v/ould  tic  them  up  by  the 
wrist,  so  high  that  their  toes  would  just  touch 
the^round,  and  then  with  a  cow-hide  la)'  the  lash 
upon  the  naked  back,  until  he  was  exhausted, 
when  he  would  sit  down  and  rest.  As  soon  as 
he  had  rested  sufficiently,  he  would  plj'  the  cow- 
hide again,  thus  he  would  continue  until  the 
whole  back  of  the  poor  victim  was  lacerated 
into  one  uniform  coat  of  blood.  Yet  he  was  a 
strict  professor  of  the  Christian  religion,  in  the 
southern  church.  I  frequently  washed  the 
v/ounds  of  John,  with  salt  water,  to  prevent 
putrefaction.  This  was  the  usual  course  pnrsu. 
ed  after  a  severe  flogging ;  their  backs  would  be 
full  of  gashes,  so  deep  that  I  could  almost  lay  my 
finger  in  them.  They  were  generallv  laid  up  after 


the  flogging  for  several  days.  The  last  flogging 
Ned  got,  he  was  confined  to  the  bed,  which  he 
never  left  till  he  was  carried  to  his  grave. 
During  Jolm's  confinement  in  his  last  sicimess 
on  one  occasion  while  attending  on  him.  he  ex- 
claimed, '  Oh,  Nanc}-,  Miss  Nancy,  I  haven't 
much  longer  in  this  world,  I  feel  as  if  my  whole 
body  inside  and  all  my  bones  were  beateii  into  a, 
jelly,'  Soon  after  he  died.  John  and  Ned  were 
hoth  professors  of  religion. 

"  John  Ruffner,  a  slaveholder,  had  one  slave 
named  Piney,  whom  he  as  well  as  Mrs.  Ruffner 
would  often  flog  very  severely.  I  frequently 
saw  Mrs.  Ruffner  flog  her  with  the  broom,  shovel, 
or  any  thing  she  could  seize  in  her  rage.  She 
would  knock  her  down  and  then  kick  and  stamp 
her  most  unmercifully,  until  she  would  lie  ap- 
parently so  lifeless,  that  I  more  than  once  thought 
she  would  never  recover.  Often  Piney  would 
try  to  shelter  herself  from  the  blows  of  her  mis- 
tress, by  creeping  under  the  bed,  from  which 
\irs.  Ruflner  would  draw  her  by  the  feet,  and 
then  stamp  and  leap  on  her  body,  till  her  brcatii 
would  be  gone.  Often  Piney,  would  cry,  '  Oh 
Missec,  don't  kill  me  !"  "  Oh  Lord,  don't  kill 
mc  1'  '  For  God's  sake  don't  kill  me  !'  But 
Mrs.  Ruffner  would  beat  and  stamp  away,  with 
all  the  venom  of  a  demon.  The  cause  of  Piney's 
flogging  was,  not  working  enough,  or  making 
some  mistake  in  baking,  &c.  &c.  Many  a 
night  Piney  had  to  lie  on  the  bare  floor,  by  the 
side  of  the  cradle,  rocking  the  baby  of  her  mis- 
tress, and  if  she  would  fall  asleep,  and  suffer  the 
child  to  cry,  so  as  to  waken  Mrs.  Ruffner,  she 
would  be  sure  to  receive  a  flogging." 


TESTIMONY  OF  MR.  WM.  C.  GILDERSLEEVE,  A  NATIVE  OF  GEORGIA 


Mr.  W.  C.  Gildersleeve,  a  native  of  Georgia,  is 
an  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  VVilkes- 
barre,  Pa. 

"  Acts  of  cruelty,  without  number,  fell  under  my 
observation  while  I  lived  in  Georgia.  I  will 
mention  but  one.  A  slave  of  a  Mr.  Pinkney,  on 
his  way  with  a  wagon  to  Savannah,  '  camped' 
for  the  night  by  the  road  side.  That  night,  the 
nearest  hen-roost  was  robbed.  On  his  return, 
the  hen-roost  was  again  visited,  and  the  fowl 
counted  one  less  in  the  morning.  The  oldest  son, 
with  some  attendants  made  search,  and  came 
upon  the  poor  fallow,  in  the  act  of  dressing  his 
spoil.  He  was  too  nimble  for  them,  and  made 
•is  retreat  good   into   a   dense  swamp.     When 


much  effort  to  start  him  from  his  hiding  piaeo 
had  proved  unsuccessful,  it  was  resolved  to  lay 
an  ambush  for  him,  some  distance  ahead.  The 
wagon,  meantime,  was  in  charge  of  a  lad,  who 
accompanied  the  teamster  as  an  assistant  The 
little  boy  lay  still  till  nearly  night,  (in  the  hope 
probably  that  the  teamster  would  return,)  when 
he  started  with  his  wagon.  After  travelling 
some  distance,  the  lost  one  made  his  appearance, 
when  the  ambush  sprang  upon  him.  The  poor 
fellow  was  conducted  back  to  the  plantation. 
He  expected  httle  mercy.  He  bc^ircd  for  him- 
self, in  the  most  suplicaling  manner,  '  pray 
massa  give  me  100  lashes  and  let  mc  go.'  He 
was  then  tied  by  the  hands,  to  a  limb  of  a  large 
mulberry  tree,  which  grew  in  the  yard,  so  that  Iiia 


Personal  Narratives — Hiram  White— J.  M.  Nelson. 


51 


foot  were  raised  a  few  inches  from  the  ground, 
while  a  sharpened  stick  was  driven  underneath, 
tliat  he  might  rest  his  weight  on  it,  or  swing 
by  his  hands.  In  this  condition  100  laslics 
were   laid  on    his   bare   body.     I    stood    by  and 


witnessed  the  whole,  without  as  I  recollect, 
feeling  the  least  compassion.  So  hardening  is 
the  influence  of  slavery,  that  it  very  much  de- 
stroys feeling  for  the  slave." 


TESTIMONY  OF  MR.  HIRAM  WHITE— A  NATIVE   OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


Mr.  White  resided  thirty-two  years  in  Chat- 
ham county,  North  Carolina,  and  is  now  a  mem- 
bu-r  of  the  Baptist  Church,  at  Otter  Creek  Prairie, 
Illinois. 

About  the  20lli  December,  1830,  a  report  was 
raised  that  the  slaves  in  Chatham  county,  North 
Carolina,  were  going  to  rise  on  Christmas  day," 
in  consequence  of  which  a  considerable  commo- 
tion ensued  among  the  inhabitants ;  orders  were 
given  by  the  Governor  to  the  militia  captains,  to 
appoint  patrolling  captains  in  each  district,  and 
orders  were  given  for  every  man  subject  to  mili- 
tary duty  to  patrol  as  their  captains  should  di- 
rect. I  went  two  nights  in  succession,  and  after 
that  refused  to  patrol  at  all.  The  reason  why  I  re- 
fused was  this  ,  orders  were  given  to  search  every 
negro  house  for  books  or  prints  of  any  kind,  and 
Bibles  and  Hymn  books  were  particularly  men- 
tioned. And  should  we  find  any,  our  orders  were 
to  inflict  punishment  by  whipping  the  slave  until 
he  informed  who  gave  them  to  him,  or  how  tliey 
came  by  them. 

As  regards  the  comforts  of  the  slaves  in  the 
vicinity  of  my  residence,  I  can  say  they  had  no- 
thing that  would  bear  that  name.  It  is  true,  the 
slaves  in  general,  of  a  good  crop  year,  were 
tolerably  well  fed,  but  of  a  bad  crop  year,  they 
were,  as  a  general  thing,  cut  short  of  their  allow- 
ance. Their  houses  were  pole  cabins,  without 
loft  or  floor.  Their  beds  were  made  of  what  is 
there  called  "  broom-straw."  The  men  more 
commonly  sleep  on  benches.  Their  clothing  would 
compare  well  with  their  lodging.  Whipping  was 
common.  It  was  hardly  possible  for  a  man  with 
a  common  pair  of  ears,  if  he  was  out  of  his  house 
but  a  short  time  on  Monday  mornings,  to  miss  of 
hearing  the  sound  of  the  lash,  and  the  cries  of ' 


the  sufferers  pleading  with  their  masters  to  desist. 
These  scenes  were  more  common  throughout  the 
time  of  my  residence  there,  from  179'J  to  1831. 

Mr.  Hedding  of  Chatham  county,  held  a  slave 
woman.  I  traveled  past  Heddings  as  often  as 
once  in  two  weeks  during  the  winter  of  1828, 
and  always  savv^  her  clad  in  a  single  cotton  dress, 
sleeves  came  half  way  to  the  elbow,  and  in  order 
to  prevent  her  running  away,  a  child,  supposed  to 
be  about  seven  years  of  age,  was  connected  with 
her  by  a  long  chain  fastened  round  her  neck,  and 
in  this  situation  she  was  compelled  all  the  day  to 
grub  up  the  roots  of  shrubs  and  sapplings  to  pre- 
pare ground  for  the  plough.  It  is  not  uncommon 
for  slaves  to  make  up  on  Sundays  what  they  are 
not  able  to  perform  through  the  week  of  their 
tasks. 

At  the  time  of  the  rumored  insurrection  above 
named,  Chatham  jail  was  filled  with  slaves  who 
were  said  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  plot. 
Without  the  least  evidence  of  it,  they  were  punish, 
ed  in  divers  ways  ;  some  were  whipped,  some  had 
their  thumbs  screwed  in  a  vice  to  make  them  con- 
fess, but  no  proof  satisfactory  was  ever  obtained 
that  the  negroes  had  ever  thought  of  an  insur- 
rection, nor  did  any  so  far  as  I  could  learn,  ac. 
knowledge  that  an  insurrection  had  ever  been 
projected.  From  this  time  forth,  the  slaves  were 
prohibited  from  assembling  together  for  the  wor 
ship  of  God,  and  many  of  those  who  had  previ- 
ously been  authorized  to  preach  the  gospel  were 
prohibited. 

Amalgamation  was  common.  There  was 
scarce  a  family  of  slaves  that  had  females  of 
mature  age  where  there  were  not  some  mulatto 
children. 

Hiram  White. 
Otter  Creek  Prairie,  Jan.  22,  1839. 


TESTIMONY    OF   MR.   JOHN    M.    NELSON— A  NATIVE   OF   VIRGINIA. 


Extract  of  a  letter,  dated  January  3,  1839,  from 
John  M.  Nelson,  Esq.,  of  Hillsborough.  Mr.  Nel- 
son removed  from  Virginia  to  Highland  county, 
Ohio,  many  years  since,  where  he  is  extensively 
known  and  respected. 

I  was  born  and  raised  in  Augusta  county, 
Virginia  ;  my  father  was  an  elder  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  and  was  "  owner"  of  about  twen- 
ty slaves ;  he  was  what  was  generally  termed  a 
*'  good  master."  His  slaves  were  generally  toler- 
ably well  fed  and  clothed,  and  not  over  worked, 
they  were  sometimes  permitted  to  attend  church, 
and  called  in  to  family  worship  ;  few  of  them, 
however,  availed  themselves  of  these  privileges. 
On  some  occasions  I  have  seen  him  wliip  them 
severely,  particularly  for  the  crime  of  trying  to 
t^btain  their  liberty,  or  for  what  was  called,  "  run- 


ning away."  For  this  they  were  scourged  more 
severely  than  for  any  thing  else.  After  they  have 
been  retaken,  I  have  seen  them  stripped  naked 
and  suspended  by  the  hands,  sometimes  to  a 
tree,  sometimes  to  a  post,  until  their  toea 
barely  touched  the  ground,  and  whipped  with 
a  cowhide  until  the  blood  dripped  from  their 
backs.  A  boy  named  Jack,  particularly,  I  have 
seen  served  in  this  way  more  than  once. 
When  Iwas  quite  a  child,  I  recollect  it  grieved  me 
very  much  to  see  one  tied  up  to  be  whipped,  and  I 
used  to  intercede  with  tears  in  their  behalf,  and 
mingle  my  cries  with  theirs,  and  feel  almost  wil. 
ling  to  take  part  of  the  punishment  ;  I  have 
been  severely  rebuked  by  my  father  for  this  kind 
of  sympathy.  Yet,  such  is  the  hardening  nature 
of  such  scenes,  that  from  this  kind  of  commisse 
ration  for  the  suffering  slave,  I  became  so  blunt- 


52 


Personal  Narratives — Angelina  Grimke  Weld. 


ed  that  I  could  not  only  witness  their  stripes  with 
composure,  but  myself  inflict  them,  and  that 
without  remorse.  One  case  I  have  often  looked 
hack  to  with  sorrow  and  contrition,  particularly 
since  I  have  been  convinced  tluit  "  negroes  are 
naen."  When  I  was  perhaps  fourteen  or  i'lfteen 
yi;ara  of  ag-o,  I  undertook  to  correct  a  young  fcl- 
iow  named  j\'cd,  lor  some  supposed  offence  ;  I 
think  it  was  leaving  a  bridle  out  of  its  proper 
place ;  he  being  larger  and  stronger  than  myself 
took  hold  of  my  arms  and  held  me,  in  order  to 
prevent  my  striking  him  ;  this  I  considered  the 
height  of  insolence,  and  cried  for  help,  when 
my  father  and  mother  both  came  running  to  my 
rescue.  My  father  stripped  and  tied  him,  and 
took  him  into  the  orchard,  where  switches  were 
plenty,  and  directed  me  to  whip  him ;  when  one 
switch  wore  out  he  supplied  me  with  others.  After 
I  had  whipped  him  a  while,  he  fell  on  his  knees 
1.0  implore  forgiveness,  and  I  kicked  him  in  tJie 
face  ;  my  father  said,  "  don't  kick  him,  but  whip 
him  ;"  this  I  did  until  his  back  was  literally  cov- 
ered with  icelts.  I  know  I  have  repented,  and 
trust  I  have  obtained  pardon  for  these  things. 

My  father  owned  a  woman,  (we  used  to  call 
aunt  Grace,)  she  was  purchased  in  Old  Virginia. 
She  has  told  me  that  her  old  master,  in  his  will, 
gave  her  her  freedom,  but  at  his  death,  his  sons 
had  sold  her  to  my  father :  when  he  bought  her 
she  manifested  some  unwillingness  to  go  with 
him,  when  she  was  put  in  irons  and  taken  by 
force.  This  was  before  I  was  born  ;  but  I  remem- 
her  to  have  seen  the  irons,  and  was  told  that  was 
what  they  had  been  used  for.  Aunt  Grace  is 
still  living,  and  must  be  between  seventy  and 
eighty  years  of  age  ;  she  has,  for  the  lab^  forty 
years,  been  an  exemplary  Christian.  Who"  I  was 
a  youth  I  took  some  pains  to  learn  her  to  read  ; 
this  is  now  a  great  consolation  to  her.  Since  age 
and  infirmity  have  rendered  her  of  little  value  to 


her  "  owners,"  she  is  permitted  to  read  as  much 
as  she  pleases ;  this  she  can  do,  with  the  aid  of 
glasses,  in  the  old  family  Bible,  which  is  almost 
the  only  book  she  has  ever  looked  into.  This  with 
some  little  mending  for  the  black  children,  is  all 
she  does ;  she  is  still  held  as  a  slave.  I  well  re- 
member  what  a  heart-rending  scetie  there  was  in 
the  family  when  my  father  sold  her  huisband ;  this 
was,  I  suppose,  thirty-five  years  ago.  And  yet  my 
father  was  considered  one  of  the  best  of  masters. 
I  know  of  few  who  were  better,  but  of  WAiny 
who  were  worse. 

The  last  time  I  saw  my  father,  which  was  in 
the  fall  of  1832,  he  promised  me  that  he  would 
free  all  his  slaves  at  his  death.  He  died  however 
without  doing  it ;  and  I  have  understood  since, 
that  he  omitted  it,  through  the  influence  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Speecc,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  who  lived  in 
the  family,  and  was  a  a  warm  friend  of  the  Co. 
Ionization  Society. 

About  the  year  1809  or  10,  I  became  a  student 
of  Rev.  George  Bourne  ;  he  was  the  first  aboli- 
tionist I  had  ever  saen,  and  the  first  I  had  cver^ 
heard  pray  or  plead  for  the  oppressed,  which 
gave  me  the  first  misgivings  about  the  innocence. 
of  slaveholding.  I  received  impressions  from  Mr. 
Bourne  which  I  coidd  not  get  rid  of,*  and  deter- 
mined in  my  own  mind  that  when  I  settled  in 
life,  it  should  be  in  a  free  state  ;  this  determina- 
tion I  carried  into  effect  in  1813,  when  I  removed 
to  this  place,  which  1  supposed  at  that  time,  to 
be  all  the  opposition  to  slavery  that  was  neces- 
sary, but  the  moment  I  became  convinced  that 
all  slaveholding  was  in  itself  sinful,  I  became  an 
abolitionist,  which  was  about  four  years  ago. 

*  Mr.  Bourne  resided  seven  years  in  Virpnia,  "  in  perils 
among  false  brethren,"  fiercely  persecutt  d  for  his  faitbt'ul 
testimony  asaiiist  slavery.  More  than  twenty  years  sinc>; 
he  published  a  work  entitled  "  The  Book  and  Slavery  irri- 
concileable." 


TESTIMONY  OF  ANGELINA  GRIMKE  WELD. 


Mrs.  Weld  is  the  youngest  daughter  of  the 
late  Judge  Grimke,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
South  Carolina,  and  a  sister  of  the  late  Hon. 
Thomas  S.  Grimke,  of  Charleston. 

Fort  Lee,  Bergen  Co.,  New  Jersey,      } 
Fourth  month  6th,  1839.  S 

I  sit  down  to  cotiiply  with  thy  retiuest,  prefer- 
red in  the  name  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society.  The  re- 
sponsibility laid  upon  me  by  such  a  request,  leaves 
me  no  option.  While  I  live,  and  slavery  lives,  I 
must  testify  against  it.  If  I  should  hold  my 
peace,  "  the  stone  would  cry  out  of  the  vi'all,  and 
the  beam  out  of  the  timber  would  answer  it." 
But  though  I  feel  a  necessity  upon  me,  and  "  a 
woe  unto  me,"  if  I  withhold  my  testimony,  I 
give  it  with  a  heavy  heart.  My  flesh  crieth  out, 
"  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me ;" 
but,  "  Father,  thy  will  be  done,"  is,  I  trust,  the 
breathing  of  my  spirit.  Oh,  the  slain  of  the 
daughter  of  my  people  !  they  lie  in  all  the  ways ; 
their  tears  fall  as  the  rain,  and  are  their  meat 
day  and  night  ;  their  blood  runneth  down  like 
water ;    their  plundered   hearths  aie   desolate ; 


they  weep  for  their  husbands  and  children,  be- 
cause they  are  not ;  and  the  proud  waves  do  con. 
tinually  go  over  them,  while  no  eye  pitieth,  and 
no  man  careth  for  their  souls. 

But  it  is  not  alone  for  the  sake  of  my  poor 
brothers  and  sisters  in  bonds,  or  for  the  cause  ol 
truth,  and  righteousness,  and  humanity,  that  I 
testify ;  the  deep  yearnings  of  affection  for  the 
mother  that  bore  me,  who  is  still  a  slaveholder, 
both  in  fact  and  in  heart ;  for  my  brothers  anri 
sisters,  (a  large  family  circle,)  and  for  my  nu- 
merous other  slaveholding  kindred  in  South  Ca- 
rolina, constrain  me  to  speak :  for  even  wen- 
slavery  no  curse  to  its  victims,  the  exercise  of 
arbitrary  power  works  such  fearful  ruin  upon  the 
hearts  of  slaveholders,  that  I  should  feel  impelled 
to  labor  and  pray  for  its  overthrow  with  my  last 
energies  and  latest  breath. 

I  think  it  important  to  premise,  that  I  havf 
seen  almost  nothing  of  slavery  on  plantations. 
My  testimony  will  have  respect  exclusively  to 
the  treatment  of  "  konse-servants,"  and  chiefly 
those  belonging  to  the  first  families  in  the  city  of 
Charleston,  both  in  the  religious  and  in  the  fash- 
ionable world.     And  here  let  mc  say,  that  the 


Personal  Narratives — Angelina  Grimk6  Weld. 


53 


treatment  of  plantation  slaves  cannot  be  fully 
known,  except  by  the  poor  pufFerers  themselves, 
and  their  drivers  and  overseers.  In  a  multitude 
of  instances,  even  the  master  can  know  very  lit- 
tie  of  the  actual  condition  of  his  own  field-slaves, 
and  his  wife  and  daughters  far  less.  A  few  facts 
concerning  my  own  famil}-  will  show  this.  Our 
permanent  residence  was  in  Charleston ;  our 
country-scat  (Bellemont,)  was  200  miles  distant, 
in  the  north-western  part  of  the  state  ;  where,  for 
some  years,  our  family  spent  a  few  months  annu- 
ally. Our  plantation  was  three  miles  from  this 
i'amily  mansion.  There,  all  the  held-slaves  lived 
and  worked.  Occasionally,  once  a  month,  per- 
haps, some  of  the  familv  would  ride  over  to  the 
plantation,  but  I  never  vh'iieAihn  fields  vihcrc  the 
xlaves  were  at  icork,  and  knew  almost  notliing  of 
their  condition ;  but  this  I  do  know,  that  the 
overseers  who  had  charge  of  them,  were  gene- 
rally unprincipled  and  intemperate  men.  But  I 
rejoice  to  know,  that  the  general  treatment  of 
slaves  in  that  region  of  country,  was  far  milder 
than  on  the  plantations  in  the  lower  country. 

Throughout  ail  the  eastern  and  middle  por- 
tions of  the  state,  the  planters  very  rarely  reside 
permanently  on  tlieir  plantations.  They  have 
almost  invariably  two  residences,  and  spend  less 
than  half  the  year  on  their  estates.  Even  while 
spending  a  few  months  on  them,  politics,  field- 
sports,  races,  speculations,  journeys,  visits,  com- 
pany, literary  pursuits,  &c.,  absorb  so  much  of 
their  time,  that  they  mu.st,  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent, take  the  condition  of  their  slaves  on  trust, 
from  the  reports  of  their  overseers.  I  make  this 
statement,  because  these  slaveholders  (the  wealth- 
ier class,)  are,  I  believe,  almost  the  only  ones  who 
visit  the  north  with  their  families  ; — and  northern 
opinions  of  slavery  are  based  chiefly  on  their  tes- 
timony. 

But  not  to  dwell  on  preliminaries,  I  wish  to 
record  my  testimony  to  the  faithfulness  and  ac- 
curacy with  which  my  beloved  sister,  Sarah  M. 
Grimkd,  has,  in  her '  narrative  and  testimony,'  on 
a  preceding  page,  described  the  condition  of  the 
slaves,  and  the  effect  upon  the  hearts  of  slave- 
holders, (even  the  best,)  caused  by  the  exercise 
of  unlimited  power  over  moral  agents.  Of  the 
particular  acts  which  she  has  stated.  I  have  no 
])crsonal  knowledge,  as  they  occurred  before  my 
remembrance ;  but  of  the  spirit  that  prompted 
them,  and  that  constantly  display's  itself  in  scenes 
of  similar  liorror,  the  recollections  of  my  child- 
hood, and  the  elFaceless  imprint  upon  my  riper 
years,  witli  the  breaking  of  my  heart-strings, 
when,  finding  that  I  was  powerless  to  shield  the 
victims,  I  tore  myself  from  my  home  and  friends, 
and  became  an  exile  among  strangers — all  these 
throng  aroimd  me  as  witnesses,  and  their  testi- 
mony is  graven  on  my  memory  with  a  pen  of 
fire. 

Why  I  did  not  become  totally  hardened,  under 
llic  daily  operation  of  this  system,  God  only 
knows;  in  deep  solemnity  and  gratitude,  I  sav, 
it  was  the  Lord''s  doing,  and  marvellous  in  mine 
o}-es.  Even  before  my  heart  was  touclicd  with 
the  love  of  Christ,  I  used  to  say,  "  Oh  that  I  had 
th.e  wings  of  a  dove,  that  I  might  flee  away  and 
bo  at  rest ;'  for  I  felt  that  there  could  be  no  rest  for 
me  in  the  midst  of  such  outrages  and  pollutions. 
.\nd  yet  I  saw  nothing  of  slavery  in  its  most 


vulgar  and  repulsive  forms.  I  saw  it  in  the  city, 
among  the  fashionable  and  the  honorable,  where 
it  was  garnished  by  rcflnement,  and  decked  out 
for  show.  A  few  facts  will  unfold  the  state  of 
society  in  the  circle  with  which  I  was  familiar, 
far  better  than  any  general  assertions  I  can  make. 
I  will  first  introduce  the  reader  to  a  woman 
of  the  highest  respectability — one  who  was  fore- 
most in  every  benevolent  enterprise,  and  stood 
for  many  years,  I  may  say,  at  the  head  of  the 
fashionable  elite  of  the  city  of  Charleston,  and 
afterwards  at  the  head  of  the  moral  and  religious 
female  society  there.  It  was  after  she  had  made 
a  profession  of  religion,  and  retired  from  the 
fashionable  world,  that  I  knew  her  •,  therefore  I 
will  present  her  in  her  religious  eharacler.  Thiw 
lady  used  to  keep  cowhides,  or  small  paddles, 
(called  '  pancake  sticks,')  in  four  diflerent  apart- 
ments in  her  house  ;  so  that  when  she  wished  to 
punish,  or  to  have  punished,  Viuy  of  her  slaves,  she 
might  not  have  the  trouble  of  sending  for  an  in- 
strument of  torture.  For  many  years,  one  or 
other,  and  often  more  of  her  slaves,  were  flogged 
erierx/  day;  particularly  tlic  young  slaves  about 
the  house,  whose  faces  were  slaitjicd,  or  their 
hands  beat  Vv-itli  the  'pancake  stick,'  for  every 
trifling  offence — and  often  for  no  fault  at  all. 
But  the  floggings  were  not  all ;  tlie  scohlings 
and  abuse  daily  heaped  upon  them  all,  were 
worse:  'fools'  and  'liars,' '  sluts'  and  '  Imsseys,' 
'hypocrites'  and  'good-for-nothing  creatures,' 
were  tlie  common  epithets  with  which  her  mouth 
was  filled,  when  addressing  her  slaves,  adults  as 
well  as  children.  Very  often  she  would  take  a 
position  at  her  window,  in  an  upper  story,  and 
scold  at  her  slaves  while  working  in  the  garden. 
at  some  distance  from  (lie  house,  (a  large  yard 
intervening,)  and  occasionally  order  a  flogging. 
I  have  known  her  thus  on  the  watch,  scolding 
for  more  than  an  hour  at  a  time,  in  so  loud  a 
voice  that  the  whole  neighborhood  could  hear 
her ;  and  this  without  the  least  apparent  feeling 
of  shame.  Indeed,  it  was  no  disgrace  among 
slaveholders,  and  did  not  in  the  least  injure  her 
standing,  either  as  a  lady  or  a  Christian,  in  the 
aristocratic  circle  in  which  she  moved.  After 
the  'revival'  in  Charleston,  in  1825,  she  opened 
her  house  to  social  prayer-meetings.  The  room 
in  which  they  were  held  in  the  evening,  and 
where  the  voice  of  prayer  was  heard  around  the 
family  altar,  and  where  she  herself  retired  for 
private  devotion  thrice  each  day,  was  the  very 
place  in  which,  when  her  slaves  were  to  be  whip- 
I)ed  with  the  cowhide,  they  were  taken  to  receive 
the  infliction ;  and  the  wail  of  the  sufferer  would 
be  heard,  where,  perhaps  only  a  few  hours  pre- 
vious, rose  the  voices  of  prayer  and  praise.  This 
mistress  would  occasionally  send  her  slaves,  male 
and  female,  to  the  Charleston  work-house  to  be 
punished.  One  poor  girl,  whom  she  sent  there 
to  be  flogged,  and  who  was  accordingly  stripped 
naked  and  whipped,  showed  me  the  deep  gashes 
on  her  back — I  might  have  laid  my  whole  finger 
in  them — large  pieces  of  flesh  had  actually  been 
cut  07it  by  the  torturing  lash.  She  sent  another 
female  slave  there,  to  be  imprisoned  and  worked 
on  the  tread-mill.  This  girl  was  confined  several 
days,  and  forced  to  work  tiie  mill  while  in  a  state 
of  suffering  from  another  cause.  For  ten  dav^ 
or  two  weeks  after  her  return,  she  was  Ijime^  from 


54 


Personal  J^analives — Anoelina  Grimke  Weld. 


tlic  violent  exertion  necessary  to  enable  her  to 
keep  the  step  on  the  machine.  She  spoke  tome 
witii  intense  I'celing  of  tiiis  outrage  upon  her,  as 
a  wuman.  Her  men  servants  were  sometimes 
flo<5jrcd  there  ;  and  so  cxeeedin<rly  oflensive  has 
been  the  putrid  flesh  of  their  lacerated  backs,  for 
days  aflcr  the  infliction,  that  they  would  be  kept 
out  of  the  house — the  smell  arising  from  their 
wounds  being  too  horrible  to  be  endured.  They 
were  always  stiff  and  sore  for  some  daj's,  and  not 
in  a  condition  to  be  seen  by  visitors. 

This  professccily  Christian  wotnan  was  a  most 
awful  illustration  of  the  ruinous  influence  of 
arbitrary  power  upon  the  temper — her  bursts 
of  })assion  upon  the  heads  of  iier  victims  vi'cre 
dreaded  even  by  her  own  children,  and  very 
often,  all  the  pleasure  of  social  intercourse  around 
the  domestic  board,  was  destroyed  by  her  order- 
ing the  cook  into  her  presence,  and  storming  at 
him,  when  the  dinner  or  breakfast  was  not  pre- 
pared to  her  taste,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  her 
children,  commanding  tlie  waiter  to  slap  his  face. 
Faull-Jinding,  was  with  her  the  constant  accom- 
paniment of  every  meal,  and  banished  that  peace 
which  should  hover  around  the  social  board,  and 
smile  on  every  face.  It  v/aK  common  for  her  to 
order  brothers  to  whip  their  own  sisters,  and  sis- 
ters their  own  brothers,  and  yet  no  woman  visited 
among  the  jioor  more  than  she  did,  or  gave  more 
hbcraily  to  relieve  their  wants.  This  may  seem 
perfectly  unaccountable  to  a  northerner,  but  these 
seeming  contradictions  vanish  when  we  con- 
sider that  over  them  she  possessed  no  arbitrary 
power,  they  were  always  presented  to  her  mind 
as  unfortunate  sufferers,  towards  whom  her  sym- 
pathies most  freely  flowed ;  she  was  ever  ready 
to  w-i])e  the  tears  from  tlirir  eyes,  and  open  wide 
her  jmrsc  for  their  relief,  but  the  others  were  her 
vassals,  thrust  down  by  public  opinion  beneath 
her  feet,  to  be  at  her  beck  and  call,  ever  ready  to 
."-erve  in  all  humility,  her,  whom  God  in  his  pro- 
vidence liad  set  over  them — it  was  their  duty  to 
abide  in  abject  submission,  and  hers  to  compel 
them  to  do  so — it  was  thus  that  she  reasoned. 
Except  at  family  prayers,  none  were  permitted 
to  sit  in  her  presence,  but  the  seamstresses  and 
waiting  maids,  and  tl-ey,  however  delicate  might 
be  their  circumstances,  were  forced  to  sit  upon 
low  stools,  without  backs,  that  they  might  be 
constantly  reminded  of  their  inferiority.  A  slave 
who  waited  in  the  house,  was  guilty  on  a  particu- 
lar occasion  of  going  to  visit  his  wife,  and  kept 
dinner  waiting  a  little,  (his  wife  was  the  slave 
of  a  lady  who  lived  at  a  little  distance.)  When 
the  family  sat  down  to  the  table,  the  mistress 
began  to  scold  the  w-aiter  for  the  offence — he  at- 
tempted to  excuse  himself — she  ordered  him  to 
hold  his  tongue — he  ventured  another  apology  ; 
her  son  then  rose  from  the  table  in  a  rage,  and 
beat  the  face  and  cars  of  the  waiter  so  dreadfully 
that  the  blood  gushed  from  his  mouth,  and  nose, 
and  ears.  This  mistress  was  a  professor  of  re- 
ligion ;  her  daughter  who  related  the  circum- 
stance, vi'as  A  fellow  member  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  with  the  poor  oitlrn^ed,  slave — instead  of 
feeling  indignation  at  this  outrageous  abuse  of 
her  brother  in  the  church.' she  justified  the  deed, 
and  said  "he  got  just  what  he  deserved."  I 
solemnly  believe  this  to  be  a  true  picture  of 
«laceholdi/is  religion. 


The  following  is  another  illustration  of  it: 

A  mistress  in  Charleston  sent  a  grey  headed 
female  slave  to  the  workhouse,  and  had  her  se- 
verely flogged.  The  poor  old  woman  went  to  an 
acquaintance  of  mine  and  begged  her  to  buy  her, 
and  told  her  how  cruelly  she  had  been  whipped. 
My  friend  examined  her  lacerated  bark,  and  out 
of  compassion  did  purchase  her.  The  circum- 
stance was  mentioned  to  one  of  the  former  own- 
er's relatives,  who  asked  her  if  it  were  true. 
The  mistress  told  her  it  was,  and  said  that  she 
had  made  the  severe  whipping  of  this  aged  wo- 
man a  subject  of  prayer,  and  that  she  believed  she 
had  done  right  to  have  it  inflicted  upon  her. 
The  last  'owner'  of  the  poor  old  slave,  said  she, 
had  no  fault  to  find  with  her  as  a  servant. 

I  remember  very  well  that  when  I  was  a  child, 
our  next  door  neighbor  whipped  a  young  woman 
so  brutally,  that  in  order  to  escape  his  lilows  she 
rushed  through  the  drawing-room  window  in  the 
second  story,  an('  fell  upon  the  street  pavement 
below  and  broke  her  hip.  This  circumstance 
produced  no  excitement  or  inquiry. 

The  following  circumstance  occun-ed  in 
Charleston,  in  1828  : 

A  slaveholder,  after  flogging  a  little  girl 
about  thirteen  years  old,  set  her  on  a  table  with 
her  feet  fastened  in  a  pair  of  stocks.  He  then 
locked  the  door  and  took  out  the  key.  When  the 
door  was  opened  she  was  found  dead,  having 
fallen  from  the  table.  When  I  asked  a  prominent 
lawyer,  who  belonged  to  one  of  the  first  families 
in  the  State,  whether  the  murderer  of  this  help- 
less child  could  not  be  indicted,  he  coolly  replied, 

that  the  slave  was  Mr. "s  property,  and  if 

he  chose  to  suffer  the  loss,  no  one  else  had  any 
thing  to  do  with  it.  The  loss  of  human  life,  the 
distress  of  the  parents  and  other  relatives  of  the 
little  girl,  seemed  utterly  out  of  his  thoughts  : 
it  was  the  loss  of  inoperty  only  that  presented 
itself  to  his  mind. 

I  knew  a  gentleman  of  great  benevolence  and 
generosity  of  character,  so  essentially  to  injure 
the  eye  of  a  little  boy,  about  ten  years  old,  as  to 
destroy  its  siglit,  by  the  blow  of  a  cowhide,  in- 
flicted whilst  he  was  whipping  him.*  I  have 
heard  the  same  individual  speak  of  "  breaking 
dowai  the  spirit  of  a  slave  under  the  lash  "  as  pcr- 
lec'.ly  right. 

I  also  know  that  an  aged  slave  of  his,  (by 
marriage,)  was  allowed  to  get  a  scanty  aRd  pre- 
carious subsistence,  by  begging  in  the  streets  of 
Charleston — he  was  too  old  to  work,  and  there- 
fore his  alloieanre  ipas  stopped,  and  he  was 
turned  out  to  make  his  living  by  begging. 

When  I  was  about  thirteen  T;'ars  old,  I  attend- 
ed a  seminar}',  in  Charleston,  which  was  super- 
intended by  a  man  and  his  wife  of  superior  edu- 
cation. They  had  under  their  instruction  the 
daughters  of  nearly  all  the  aristocracy.  Their 
cruelty  to  the  ir  slaves,  both  male  and  female,  I 
can  never  forget.  I  remember  one  dav  there  was 
called  into  the  school  room  to  open  a  wmdow,  a 

*  The  Jpwisli  law  wdiilil  have  set  this  scr\'atil  free,  for 
liis  pyo's  sake,  bul  ho  was  held  in  slavery  and  .sold  from 
liand  to  hand,  tillhouph,  bosidrs  ibis  tillL>  lo  his  lil)prty  ac- 
rording  to  .Jewish  l:iw,  he  was  a  niulaltn,  and  thrreCore  free 
nndir  th<'  CoMStitu'ion  of  tlio  L'nitod  States,  in  whosi"  nrr- 
ainblr-  our  fathers  declare  that  thoy  pstal)li-j!'ed  it  ej[|irii«l^ 
t()."serure  the  blcs-singsof /ificr/y  to  tlicu.jclvcs  and  JAeit 
postmity." — Ed. 


Personal  Narratives — Angelina  Grimke  Weld. 


55 


ooy  whose  head  had  been  shaved  in  order  to  dis- 
grace liiin,  and  he  had  bci'n  so  dreadfully  whip- 
ped that  he  could  hardly  walk.  So  horrible  was 
the  impression  produced  upon  my  mind  by  his 
heart-broken  countenance  and  crippled  person 
that  I  fainted  away.  The  sad  and  ghastly  coun- 
tenance of  one  of  their  female  mulatto  slaves  who 
used  to  sit  on  a  low  stool  at  her  sewing  in  the 
piazza,  is  now  fresh  before  me.  She  often  told 
me,  secretly,  how  cruelly  she  was  whipped  when 
they  sent  her  to  the  work  house.  I  had  known  so 
much  of  the  terrible  scourgings  inflicted  in  that 
house  of  blood,  that  when  I  was  once  obliged  to 
pass  it,  the  very  sight  smote  me  vpith  such  horror 
that  my  limbs  could  hardly  sustain  me.  I  felt  as  if 
I  was  passing  the  precincts  of  hell.  A  friend  of  mine 
who  Jived  in  the  neighborhood,  told  me  she  often 
heard  the  screams  of  the  slaves  under  their 
torture. 

I  once  heard  a  physician  of  a  high  family,  and 
of  great  respectability  in  his  profession,  say,  that 
when  he  sent  his  sla<'es  to  the  work-house  to  be 
flogged,  he  always  went  to  see  it  done,  that  he 
might  be  sure  they  were  properly,  i.  e.  severely 
whipped.  He  also  related  the  following  circum- 
stance in  my  presence.  He  had  sent  a  youth  of 
about  eighteen  to  this  horrible  place  to  be  whip- 
ped and  aftenoards  to  be  worked  upon  the  tread- 
mill. From  not  keeping  the  step,  which  probably 
he  COULD  NOT  do,  in  consequence  of  the  lacerated 
state  of  his  body ;  his  arm  got  terriljly  torn,  from 
the  shoulder  to  the  wrist.  This  phj^scian  said, 
he  went  every  day  to  attend  to  it  himself,  in  order 
that  he  might  use  those  restoratives,  which  would 
inflict  the  greatest  possible  pain.  This  poor  boy, 
after  being  imprisoned  there  for  some  weeks,  was 
then  brought  home,  and  compelled  to  wear  iron 
clogs  on  his  ankles  for  one  or  two  months.  I 
saw  him  with  those  irons  on  one  day  when  I  was 
at  the  house.  This  man  was,  when  young,  re- 
markable in  the  fashionable  world  for  his  elegant 
and  fascinating  manners,  but  the  exercise  of  the 
slaveholder's  power  has  thrown  the  fierce  air  of 
tyranny  even  over  these. 

I  heard  another  man  of  equally  high  standing 
Bay,  that  he  believed  he  suffered  far  more  than  his 
waiter  did,  whenever  he  flogged  him,  for  he  felt 
the  exertion  for  days  afterward,  but  he  could  not 
let  his  servant  go  on  in  tlie  neglect  of  his  business, 
it  was  his  duti/  to  chastise  him.  "  His  duty"  to 
flog  this  boy  of  seventeen  so  severely  that  he  felt 
t/ie  exertion  for  days  after  \  and  yet  he  never  felt 
it  to  be  his  duty  to  instruct  him,  or  have  him  in- 
structed, even  in  the  common  principles  of  mo- 
rality. I  heard  the  mother  of  this  man  say,  it 
would  be  no  surprise  to  her,  if  he  killed  a  slave 
some  day,  for,  that,  when  transported  witii  pas- 
sion he  did  not  seem  to  care  what  he  did.  He 
once  broke  a  large  stick  over  tlie  back  of  a  slave, 
and  at  anotlier  time  the  ivory  butt-end  of  a  long 
coach  whip  over  the  head  of  another.  This  last 
was  attacked  with  epileptic  fits  some  months 
after,  and  has  ever  since  been  subject  to  them, 
and  occasionallj'  to  violent  fits  of  insanity. 

Southern  mistresses  sometimes  flog  their  slaves 
themselves,  though  generally  one  slave  is  com- 
pelled to  flog  another.  Whilst  staying  at  a  friend's 
house  some  vears  ago,  I  one  day  saw  the  mistress 
with  a  cow-hide  in  her  hand,  and  heard  her  scold- 
ing in  an  under  tone,  her  waiting  man,  who  was 


about  twenty-five  years  old.  Whether  she  actu- 
ally inflicted  the  blows  I  do  not  know,  for  I  hast- 
ened out  of  sight  and  hearing.  It  was  not  the 
first  time  I  had  seen  a  mistress  thus  engaged.  I 
knew  she  was  a  cruel  mistress,  and  had  lieard  her 
daughters  disputing,  whether  their  mother  did 
right  or  wrong,  to  send  the  slave  children,  (whom 
f-he  sent  out  to  sweep  chimneys)  to  the  work 
house  to  be  whipped  if  they  did  not  bring  in  their 
wages  regularly.  This  woman  moved  in  the  most 
fashionable  circle  in  Charleston.  The  income  of 
this  family  was  derived  mostly  from  the  hire  of 
their  slaves,  about  one  hundred  in  number.  Their 
luxuries  were  blood-bought  luxuries  indeed.  And 
yet  what  stranger  would  ever  have  inferred  their 
cruelties  from  the  courteous  reception  and  bland 
manners  of  the  parlor.  Every  thing  cruel  and 
revolting  is  carefidly  concealed  from  strangers, 
especially  those  from  the  north.  Take  an  In- 
stance. I  have  known  the  master  and  mistress 
of  a  family  send  to  their  friends  to  borrow  ser- 
vants to  wait  on  company,  because  their  own 
slaves  had  been  so  cruelly  flogged  in  the  work 
house,  that  they  could  not  walk  without  limping  at 
every  step, and  their  putrified  flesh  emitted  such  an 
intolerable  smell  thai  they  were  not  fit  to  be  in 
the  presence  of  company.  How  can  northerners 
know  these  things  when  they  are  hospitably  re- 
ceived at  southern  tables  and  firesides  ?  I  repeat 
it,  no  one  who  has  not  been  an  integral  part  of  a 
slaveiiolding  comnmnity,  can  have  any  idea  of  its 
abominations.  It  is  a  whited  sepulchre  full  of 
dead  men's  bones  and  all  uncleanness.  Blessed 
be  God,  the  Angel  of  Truth  has  descended  and 
rolled  away  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of  the  se- 
pulchre, and  sits  upon  it.  The  abominations  so 
long  hidden  are  now  brought  forth  before  all  Israel 
and  the  sun.  Yes,  the  Angel  of  Truth  sits  upon 
this  stone,  and  it  can  never  be  rolled  back  again. 

The  utter  disregard  of  the  comfort  of  the 
slaves,  in  little  things,  can  scarcely  be  conceived 
by  those  who  have  not  been  a  component  part  of 
slaveiiolding  communities.  Take  a  few  particu- 
lars out  of  hundreds  that  might  be  named.  In 
South  Carolina  musketoes  swarm  in  myi-iads, 
more  than  half  the  ye:\.r — they  are  so  excessively 
annoying  at  night,  that  no  family  thinks  of  sleep- 
ing without  nets  or  "  musketoe-bars"  hung  over 
their  bedsteads,  yet  slaves  are  never  provided  with 
them,  unless  it  be  the  favorite  old  domestics  who 
get  the  cast-off  pavilions;  and  yet  these  very  mas. 
ters  and  mistresses  will  be  so  kind  to  their  horses 
as  to  provide  them  with  fly  nets.  Bedsteads 
and  bedding  too,  are  rarely  provided  for  any  of 
the  slaves — if  the  waiters  and  coachmen,  wait- 
ing maids,  cooks,  washers,  &c.,  have  beds  at 
all,  they  must  generally  get  them  for  them- 
selves. Commonly  they  lie  down  at  night  on 
the  bare  floor,  with  a  small  blanket  wrapped 
round  them  in  winter,  and  in  summer  a  coarse 
osnaburg  sheet,  or  nothing.  Old  slaves  generally 
have  beds,  but  it  is  because  when  younger  they 
hate  provided  them  for  themselves. 

Only  two  meals  a  dav  are  allowed  the  house 
slaves — the  first  at  twelve  o'clock.  If  they  eat 
before  this  time,  it  is  by  stealth,  and  I  am  sure 
there  must  be  a  good  deal  of  suffering  among 
them  from  hunger,  and  particularly  by  children. 
Besides  this,  they  are  often  kept  from  their  mealj 
by  way  of  punishment.     No  table  is  provided  for 


56 


Personal  Narratives — Anarclina  Grimke  Weld. 


thnm  to  eat  from.  Tlicy  knovv  nolhinjf  of  the 
comlbrt  and  pleasure  of  gathering  round  the  so. 
cial  board — each  takes  his  plate  or  tin  pan  and 
iron  spoon  and  liolds  it  in  the  hand  or  on  the 
lap.  I  never  saw  slaves  seated  round  a  table  to 
partake  of  any  meal. 

As  the  general  rule,  no  lights  of  any  kind,  no 
firewood — no  towels,  basins,  or  soap,  no  tables, 
chairs,  or  other  furniture,  arc  provided.  Wood  for 
cooking  and  washing /or  the  family  is  fmmd,  but 
when  tiie  master's  work  is  done,  the  slave  must 
find  wood  for  himself  if  he  has  a  lire.  I  have 
repeatedly  known  slave  ciiildren  kept  the  mIioIc 
winter's  evening,  sitting  on  the  stair-case  in  a 
cold  entry,  just  to  be  at  hand  to  snulT  candles  or 
hand  a  tumbler  of  water  from  the  side-board,  or  go 
on  errands  from  one  room  to  anotiicr.  It  may  be 
asked  why  they  were  not  permitted  to  stay  in  the 
parlor,  when  they  would  be  still  more  at  hand.  I 
answer,  because  waiters  are  not  allowed  to  sit  in 
the  presence  of  tlicir  ownci-s,  and  as  children 
who  were  kept  running  all  day,  would  of  course 
get  very  tired  of  standing  for  two  or  three  hours, 
they  were  allowed  to  go  into  the  entry  and  sit  on 
the  staircase  imti!  rung  for.  Another  reason  is, 
that  even  slaveholders  at  times  find  the  presence 
of  slaves  very  annoying  ;  they  cannot  exercise 
entire  freedom  of  speech  before  them  on  all  sub- 
jects. 

I  have  also  known  instances  where  seamstress- 
es were  kept  in  cold  entries  to  work  by  the  stair 
case  lamps  for  one  or  two  hours,  every  evening 
in  winter — they  could  not  see  without  standing 
up  all  the  time,  tliougli  the  work  was  often  too 
large  and  heavy  for  them  to  sew  upon  it  in  that 
position  without  great  inconvenience,  and  j'et 
they  were  expected  to  do  their  work  as  ivell  v/itli 
their  cold  fingers,  and  standing  up,  as  if  thejr  had 
been  sitting  by  a  comfortable  fire  and  provided 
with  the  necessary  light.  House  slaves  suffer  a 
great  deal  also  from  not  being  allowed  to  leave 
the  house  without  permission.  If  they  wish  to 
go  even  for  a  draught  of  water,  they  must  ask 
leave,  and  if  they  stay  longer  than  the  mistress 
thinks  neccssar}^  they  are  liable  to  be  punished, 
and  often  are  scolded  or  slaippcd,  or  kept  from 
going  down  to  the  next  meal. 

It  frequently  happens  that  relatives,  among 
slaves,  arc  separated  for  weeks  or  months,  by  the 
husband  or  brother  being  taken  by  the'  master  on 
a  journey,  to  attend  on  liis  horses  and  himself. — 
When  they  return,  the  white  husband  seeks  the 
wife  of  his  love  ;  but  the  black  husband  must  wait 
to  sec  Ms  wife,  until  mistress  pleases  to  let  her 
chami)ermaid  leave  her  room.  Yes,  sueli  is  the 
despotism  of  slavery,  that  wives  and  sisters  dare 
not  run  to  meet  their  husbands  and  brothers  after 
such  separations,  and  hours  sometimes  elnpse  be- 
fore thcv  are  allowed  to  meet ;  and,  at  times,  a 
fiendish  pk^asnre  ia  taken  in  keeping  them  asun- 
der— this  furnishes  an  opportunity  to  vent  feelings 
of  spit  3  for  any  little  neglect  of  "  dut_v." 

TIt  piifTcrings  to  whicii  slaves  are  subjected  by 
:^eparalions  of  various  kinds,  cannot  be  imagined 
by  those  unacquainted  with  the  working  out  o( 
the  f  v'stcm  behind  the  curtain.  Take  the  follow- 
ing instances. 

Chambermaids  and  Bcamstresscs  often  sleep  in 
their  mistresses'  apartments,  but  with  no  bedding 


I  at  all.  I  know  an  instance  of  a  woman  who  has 
been  married  eleven  years,  and  yet  has  never  beeii 
allowed  to  sleep  out  of  her  mistress's  chamber. — 
This  is  a  great  hardship  to  slaves.  When  wc  con- 
sider that  house  slaves  are  rarely  allowed  social 
intercourse  during  thr  day,  as  their  work  gcner- 
ally  separates  Ihem  ;  the  barbarity  of  such  an  ar- 
rangement is  obvious.  It  is  peculiarly  a  hardship 
in  the  above  case,  as  the  husband  of  "the  woman 
docs  not  "belong"  to  her  "  owner;"  and  because 
lie  is  subject  to  dreadful  attacks  of  illness,  and 
can  have  but  little  attention  from  his  wife  in  the 
day.  And  yet  her  mistress,  who  is  an  old  ladv, 
gives  her  the  highest  character  as  a  faithful  ser- 
vant, and  told  a  friend  of  mine,  that  she  was  "  en- 
tirely dependent  upon  her  for  all  her  comforts  ; 
she  dressed  and  undressed  her,  gave  her  all  her 
food,  and  was  so  necessary  to  her  that  siie  could 
not  do  without  her."  I  may  add,  that  this  couple 
arc  tenderly  attached  to  each  other. 

I  also  know  an  instance  in  which  the  husband 
was  a  slave  and  the  wife  was  free  :  during  the  ill- 
ness  of  the  former,  the  latter  was  allowed  to  come 
and  nurse  him  ;  she  was  obliged  to  leave  the  work 
b)'  which  she  had  made  a  living,  and  come  to  stay 
with  her  husband,  and  thus  lost  weeks  of  her 
time,  or  he  would  have  suffered  for  want  of  pro- 
per attention  ;  and  yet  his  "owner"  made  her  no 
compensation  for  her  services.  He  had  long  been 
a  faithful  and  a  favorite  slave,  and  his  owner  was 
a  woman  very  benevolent  to  the  poor  whites. — 
She  went  a  great  deal  among  these,  as  a  visiting 
commissioner  of  the  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society, 
and  was  in  the  constant  habit  oi paying  the  rela- 
tives of  the  poor  whites  for  nursing  their  hus 
bands,  fathers,  and  other  relations ;  becauce  she 
thought  it  very  hard,  when  their  time  was  taken 
up,  so  that  they  could  not  earn  their  daily  bread, 
that  they  should  be  left  to  suffer  Now,  such  is 
the  stupifying  inlluencc  of  the  "  chattel  principle" 
on  the  minds  of  slaveholders,  that  I  do  not  sup- 
pose it  ever  occurred  to  her  that  this  poor  colored 
wife  ought  to  be  paid  for  her  services,  and  parti- 
cularly as  she  was  spending  her  time  and  strength 
in  taking  care  of  her  "property."  She  no  doubt 
only  thouglit  how  kind  she  was,  to  nlloiD  her  to 
come  and  stay  so  long  in  her  3'ard  ;  for,  let  it  be 
kept  in  mind,  that  slaveholders  have  unlimited 
power  to  separate  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  howcA'crand  whenever  thcv  please  ; 
and  if  this  mistress  had  chosen  to  do  it,  she  could 
have  debarred  this  woman  from  all  intercourse  with 
her  husband,  hj  forbidding  her  to  enter  lier  pre- 
mises. 

Persons  who  own  plantations  and  yet  live  in 
cities,  often  take  children  from  tiieir  parents  as 
soon  as  they  arc  weaned,  and  send  them  into  the 
country ;  because  they  do  not  want  the  time  of 
the  mother  taken  up  by  attendance  upon  her  own 
children,  it  being  too  valuable  to  the  mistress.  As 
^  furor,  she  is,  in  some  cases,  permitted  to  go  to 
see  them  once  a  year.  So,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
field  slaves  happen  to  have  rhildren  of  an  age  suit- 
able to  the  convenience  of  the  m;ister,  they  ary 
fake.i  from  their  parents  and  brought  to  the  city. 
Parents  are  alrriowt  never  consulted  as  to  the  dis. 
position  to  be  made  of  their  children  ;  tliey  have  as 
liflle  control  over  them,  as  have  domestic  animals 
over  the  disposal  of  their  young.     Every  natural 


General  Testimony — Cruelties. 


57 


and  social  foelinrr  aad  affection  are  violated  with 
indifference  ;  slaves  arc  treated  as  thouijh  the}" 
did  not  possess  them. 

Another  way  in  which  the  feelings  of  slaves  are 
trifled  with  and  often  deeply  wounded,  is  by  ciiang- 
\ng  their  names ;  if,  at  the  time  tliey  are  brought 
into  a  family,  there  is  another  slave  of  the  same 
name ;  or  if  the  owner  happens,  for  some  other 
reason,  not  to  like  the  name  of  the  new  comer. 
I  have  known  slaves  very  much  grieved  at  having 
the  names  of  their  children  thus  changed,  when 
they  had  been  called  after  a  dear  relation.  In- 
deed it  would  ba  utterly  impossible  to  recount  the 
multitude  of  ways  in  which  the  heart  of  the  slave 
is  continually  lacerated  by  the  total  disregard  of 
his  feelings  as  a  social  being  and  a  human  crca. 
turc. 

The  slave  suffers  also  greatly  from  being  con- 
tinually watched.  The  sj'stem  of  espionage  which 
is  constantly  kept  up  over  slaves  is  the  most  wor- 
rying and  intolerable  that  can  be  imagined.  Many 
mistresses  are,  in  fact,  during  tiie  absence  of  their 
husbands,  really  their  drivers ;  and  the  pleasure 
of  returning  to  their  families  often,  on  the  part  of 
the  husband,  is  entirely  destroyed  by  the  complaints 
preferred  against  the  slaves  when  he  comes  home 
to  his  meals. 

A  mistress  of  my  acquaintance  asked  her  ser- 
vant boy,  one  day,  what  was  the  reason  she  could 
not  get  him  to  do  liis  work  whilst  his  master  was 
away,  and  said  to  him,  "  Your  master  works  a 
great  deal  liarderthan  you  do;  he  is  at  his  office 
all  day,  and  often  has  to  study  his  law  cases  at 
night."  ''  Master,"  said  the  bo}%  "  is  working  for 
himself,  and  for  you,  ma'am,  but  I  am  working 
for  him."  The  mistress  turned  and  remarked  to 
a  friend,  that  she  was  so  struck  with  the  truth  of 
the  remark,  that  she  could  not  say  a  word  to  him. 


But  I  forbear — the  sufferings  of  the  slaves  ara 
not  only  innumerable,  but  they  are  indescribable. 
I  may  paint  the  agony  of  kindred  torn  from  each 
other's  arms,  to  meet  no  more  in  time  ;  I  may  de- 
pict the  inflictions  of  the  blood-stained  lash,  but  I 
cannot  describe  the  daily,  hourl}',  ceaseless  torture, 
endured  by  the  heart  that  is  constantly  trampled 
under  the  foot  of  despotic  power.  This  is  a  part 
of  the  horrors  of  slavery  which,  I  believe,  no  one 
has  ever  attempted  to  delineate  ;  I  wonder  not  at 
it,  it  mocks  all  power  of  language.  Who  can  de- 
scribe the  anguish  of  tliat  mind  which  feels  itself 
impaled  upon  the  iron  of  arbitrary  power — its  liv- 
ing, writhing,  helpless  victim  !  every  human  sus- 
ceptibility tortured,  its  S3'inpathies  torn,  and  stung, 
and  bleeding — always  feeling  the  death-weapon 
in  its  heart,  and  yet  not  so  deep  as  to  kill  that 
humanity  which  is  made  the  curse  of  its  exist- 
ence. 

In  the  course  of  ray  testimony  I  liave  entered 
somewhat  into  the  minutioB  of  slavery,  because 
this  is  a  part  of  the  subject  often  overlooked,  and 
cannot  be  appreciated  by  any  but  those  who  have 
been  witnesses,  and  entered  into  sympathy  with 
the  slaves  as  human  beings.  Slaveholders  think 
nothing  of  them,  because  they  regard  their  slaves 
as  property,  the  mere  instruments  of  their  conve- 
nience and  pleaLarc.  One  who  is  a  slaveholder 
at  heart  never  recognises  a  human  being  in  a  slave. 

As  thou  hast  asked  me  to  testify  respecting  the 
physical  condition  of  the  slaves  merely,  I  say  no- 
thing of  the  awful  neglect  of  their  minds  and  souls 
and  the  systematic  effort  to  imbrute  them.  A 
wrong  and  an  impiety,  in  comparison  with  which 
all  the  other  unutterable  wrongs  of  slavery  are 
but  as  the  dust  of  the  balance. 

Angelina  G.  Weld, 


GENERAL    TESTIMONY 

TO  THE   CRUELTIES   INFLICTED  UPON  SLAVES. 


Before  pi'esenting  to  the  reader  particular  de- 
tails of  the  cruelties  inflicted  upon  American 
slaves,  we  will  present  in  brief  the  well-weigh- 
ed declarations  of  slaveholders  and  other  resi- 
dents of  slave  states,  testifying  that  the  slaves 
are  treated  with  barbarous  inhumanity.  All  de- 
fails  and  particulars  will  be  drawn  out  under 
their  appropriate  heads.  We  propose  in  this 
place  to  present  testimony  of  a  general  character 
— the  solemn  declarations  of  slaveholders  and 
others,  that  the  slaves  are  treated  with  great 
cruelty. 

To  discredit  the  testimony  of  witnesses  who 
msist  upon  convicting  themselves,  would  be  an 
anomalous  scepticism. 

To  show  that  American  slavery  has  always 
had  one  uniform  character  of  diabolical  cruelty,  we 
will  go  back  one  hundred  3'ears,  and  prove  it  by 
unimpeachable  witnesses,  who  have  given  their 
deliberate  testimony  to  its  horrid  barbarity,  from 
1739  to  1839. 


TESTIMONY    OF  REV.  GEORGE  WHITEFIELD, 

In  a  letter  written  by  him  in  Georgia,  and  ad- 
dressed to  the  slaveholders  of  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia, North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  in 
173S). — See  Benezet's  "Caution  to  Great  Britain 
and  her  Colonies." 

"  As  I  lately  passed  through  your  provinces 
on  my  way  hither,  I  was  sensibly  touched  with  a 
fellow-feeling  of  the  miseries  of  the  poor  negroes. 

"  Sure  I  am,  it  is  sinful  to  use  them  as  bad, 
nay  worse  than  if  they  were  brutes ;  and  what- 
ever particular  txceptions  there  may  be,  (as  I 
would  charitably  hope  there  are  some,)  I  fear  the 
generality  of  you  that  own  negroes,  are  liable  to 
such  a  charge.  Not  to  mention  what  numbers  have 
been  given  up  to  the  inhuman  usage  of  cruel  task, 
masters,  who  by  their  unrelenting  scourges,  have 
ploughed  their  backs  and  made  long  furrows,  and 
at  length  brought  them  to  the  grave  '     »     *     ♦ 

"  The  blood  of  them,  spilt  for  these  many  years, 
in  your  respective  provinces,  will  ascend  up  to 
heaven  against  you .'" 

The  following  is  the  testimony  of  the  celc. 
brated  John  Woolman,  an  eminent  minister  of 


58 


General  Testimony — Cruelties. 


the  Society  of  Friends,  who  traveled  extensively 
in  the  slave  states.  We  copy  it  from  a  '-Me- 
moir of  John  Woolman,  chiefly  extracted  from  a 
Journal  of  his  Life  and  Travels."  It  was  pub- 
lished in  Philadelphia,  by  the  ''  Society  of 
Friends." 

"  The  following  reflections,  were  written  in 
1757,  while  ho  was  traveling  on  a  rchgious  ac- 
count among  slavclioldcrs." 

"  Many  of  the  white  people  m  these  provinces, 
take  little  or  no  care  of  negro  marriages ;  and 
when  nngroes  many,  after  their  own  way,  some 
make  so  little  account  of  those  marriages,  that, 
with  views  of  outward  interest,  they  often  part 
men  from  their  wives,  by  selling  them  far  asun- 
der ;  which  is  common  when  estates  are  sold  by 
executors  at  vendue. 

"  Many  vk^hose  labor  is  heavy,  being  followed 
at  their  business  in  the  field  by  a  man  with  a 
whip,  hired  for  that  purpose, — have,  in  common, 
little  else  allowed  them  but  one  peck  of  Indian 
corn  and  some  salt  for  one  week,  with  a  few  po- 
tatoes. (The  potatoes  they  commonly  raise  by 
their  labor  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.)  The 
correction  ensviing  on  their  disobedience  to  over- 
seers, or  slothfulncss  in  business,  is  often  very 
.veccr/',  and  sometimes  despernl  .  Men  and  wo- 
men have  many  times  scfiicr  .■  ntJtes  enoiig'h  to 
hide  their  nakedness — and  boys  and  girls,  ten 
and  twelve  years  old,  are  often  quite  naked 
among  tlieir  masters'  children.  Some  use  en- 
deavors to  instruct  those  (negro  children)  they 
liavc  in  reading ;  but  in  common,  this  is  not  only 
neglected,  but  disapproved." — p.  12. 

TESTIMONV  OF   THE    '  MARYLAND  JOURNAL  AND   BAL- 
TIMORE ADVERTISER,'  OF  MAY  30,   1788. 

"  In  the  ordinary  course  of  the  business  of  the 
country,  the  punishment  of  relations  frequently 
happens  on  tlie  same  farm,  and  in  view  of  each 
other  :  the  father  often  sees  his  beloved  son — the 
son  his  venerable  sire — the  mother  her  much 
loved  daughter — the  daughter  her  affectionate 
parent — the  husband  sees  the  wife  of  hir  bosom, 
and  slie  the  husband  of  her  affection,  cruelly 
Ijouud  up  without  delicacy  or  mercy,  and  without 
daring  to  in'<  rpose  in  each  other's  behalf,  and 
puni:;hed  with  all  the  extremity  of  incensed  rage, 
and  all  the  rigor  of  tinrelenting  severity.  Let  us 
reverse  the  case,  and  suppose  it  ours  :  all  is  si- 
lent HORROR  I" 

testimony    OF    THE     HON.    WILLIAM    PINCKNSn',    OF 
MARYLAND. 

In  a  spcecli  before  the  Maryland  House  of 
Delegates,  in  1789,  Mr.  P.  calls  slavery  in  that 
state,  "  a  speaking  picture  of  abominahlc  oppres. 

sion  ;"  and  adds  :  "  It  will  not  do  thus  to 

act  like  unrelenting  tyrants,  perpetually  sermon- 
izing it  with  liberty  as  our  text,  and  actual  op- 
pression for  our  commentary.  Is  she  [Maryland] 
not  ....  the  foster  mother  of  petty  despots, — the 
patron  of  wanton  oppression  ?" 

Extract  frf)m  a  speech  of  Mr.  Rice,  in  the 
Convention  for  forming  the  Constitution  of  Ken- 
tucky, in  17!)0 : 

"  The  master  may,  and  often  does,  inflict  upon 


him  all  the  severity  of  punishment  the  human  body 
is  capable  of  bearing.^' 

President  Edwards,  the  Younger,  in  a  sermon 
before  the  Connecticut  Abolition  Society,  17!)1, 
says : 

"  From  these  drivers,  for  every  imagined,  as 
well  as  real  neglect  or  want  of  exeriion,  they  re- 
ceive the  lash — the  smack  of  v.'hich  is  all  day 
long  in  the  ears  of  those  who  are  on  the  planta. 
tion  or  in  the  vicinity  ;  and  it  is  used  with  such 
dexterity  and  severity,  as  not  only  to  lacerate  thi: 
skin,  but  to  tear  out  small  portions  of  the  flesh  at 
almost  every  stroke. 

"  This  is  the  general  treatment  of  the  slaves- 
But  many  individuals  suffer  still  more  severely. 
Many,  many  arc  knocked  down  ;  some  have  their 
eyes  beaten  out :  some  have  an  arm  or  a  leg  brok. 
en,  or  chopped  off ;  and  many,  for  a  very  small, 
or  for  no  crime  at  all,  have  been  beaten  to  dcatli, 
merely  to  gratify  the  fury  of  an  enraged  master 
or  overseer." 

Extract  from    an  oration,  delivered  at  Balti- 
more, July  4,  1791,  by  George  Buchanan,  M.  D 
member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Sociely- 

Their  situation  (the  slaves')  is  insupportable  ; 
misery  inhabits  their  cabins,  and  pursues  them  in 
the  field.  Inhumanly  beaten,  the}'  often  fall  sa- 
crifices to  the  turbulent  tempers  of  their  masters  I 
Who  is  there,  unless  inured  to  savage  cruelties, 
that  can  hear  of  the  inhuman  punisiiments  daily 
inflicted  upon  the  unfortunate  blacks,  without 
feeling  for  them  ?  Can  a  man  who  calls  himself 
a  Christian,  coolly  and  deliberately  tie  up,  thumb, 
screw,  torture  with  pincers,  and  beat  unmerci- 
fully a  poor  slave,  for  perhaps  a  trifling  neglccl 
of  duty  'I. — p.  14. 

testimony  of  HON.  JOHN  RANDOLPH,  OF  ROANOKE 

A  SLAVEHOLDER. 

In  one  of  his  Congressional  speeches,  Mr.  R. 
says  :  "  Avarice  alone  can  drive,  as  it  does  drive, 
this  infernal  traffic,  and  the  wretched  victims  of 
it,  like  so  many  post-horses  ivhipped  to  death  in  a 
mail  coach.  Ambition  has  its  cover-sluts  in  the 
pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war ; 
but  wiiere  are  the  trophies  of  avarice  ?  The 
hand-cuff,  the  manncle,  the  blood-stained  cntc- 
hide .'" 

Major  Stoddard,  of  the  United  States'  army, 
who  took  possession  of  Louisiana  in  behalf  of  the 
United  States,  under  the  cession  of  1804,  in  his 
Sketches  of  Louisiana,  page  332,  says  : 

"The  feelings  of  humanity  are  outraged — llu' 
most  odious  tyranny  exercised  in  a  land  of  free- 
dom, and  hunger  and  nakedness  prevail  amidst 
plenty.  «  *  «■  Cruel,  and  even  unusual  pun- 
ishments arc  daily  inflicted  on  these  wretched 
creatures,  enfeebled  with  hunger,  labor  and  the 
lash.  The  scenes  of  misery  and  distress  con. 
stantly  witnessed  alon'j  the  coast  of  the  Delta, 
[of  the  Mississippi,]  the  wounds  and  lacerations 
occasioned  by  demoralized  masters  and  over- 
seers, torture  the  feelings  of  the  passing  stranger, 
and  wring  blood  from  the  heart." 

Though  only  the  third  of  the  following  series 
of  resolutions  is  directly  relevant  to  the  subject 
now  under  consideration,   v/e  insert   llie    other 


General  Testimony — Cruelties. 


59 


resolutions,  both  because  they  are  explanatory  of 
the  third,  and  also  serve  to  reveal  the  public  sen- 
timent of  Indiana,  at  the  date  of  the  resolutions. 
As  a  large  majority  of  the  citizens  of  Indiana 
at  that  time,  were  natives  of  slave  states,  they  well 
knew  the  actual  condition  of  the' slaves. 

1.  "  Resolved  unanimously,  by  the  Legislative 
Council  and  House  of  Representatives  of  In- 
diana Territory,  that  a  suspension  of  the  sixth 
article  of  compact  between  the  United  States 
and  the  territories  and  states  north  west  of  the 
river  Ohio,  passed  the  13th  day  of  January,  1783, 
for  the  term  of  ten  years,  would  be  higlily  ad- 
vantageous to  the  territory,  and  meet  the  ap- 
probation of  at  least  nine-tenths  of  the  good  citi- 
zens of  the  same. 

12.  "  Resolved  UNANIMOUSLY,  that  the  abstract 
question  of  liberty  and  slavery,  is  not  considered 
as  involved  in  a  suspension  of  the  said  article, 
inasmuch  as  the  number  of  slaves  in  the  United 
.States  would  not  be  augmented  by  tlie  measure. 

3.  "  Resolved  unanimously,  that  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  said  article  would  be  equally  advanta- 
geous to  the  territory,  to  the  states  from  whence 
the  negroes  would  be  brought,  and  to  the  negroes 
themselves.  The  states  which  are  ovcrburthcned 
witli  negroes,  would  be  benefited  by  disposing  of 
the  negroes  which  they  cannot  comfortably  sup- 
{jort ;     *     *     and  the  negro  himself  would  ex- 

rUANGK  A  scanty  PITTANCE  OF  THE  COARSEST  FOOD, 

for  a  plentiful  and  nourishing  diet ;  and  a  situa- 
tion which  admits  not  the  most  distant  prospect 
of  emancipation,  for  one  which  presents  no  con- 
siderable obstacle  to  his  wishes. 

4.  "  Resolved  unanimously,  that  a  copy  of 
these  resolutions  be  delivered  to  the  delegate  to 
Congress  from  this  territory,  and  that  he  be,  and 
he  hereby  is,  instructed  to  use  his  best  endeavors 
to  obtain  a  suspension  of  the  said  article. 

J.  B.  Thomas, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Pierre  Minard, 
President  pro  tern,  of  the  Legislative  Council. 
Vincennes,  Dec.  20,  1806. 

"Forwarded  to  the  Speaker  of  the  United  States' 
Senate,  by  William  Henry  Harrison,  Gover- 
nor."— American  State  Papers,  vol  1.  p.  467. 

Monsieur,  C.  C.  Robin,  who  resided  in  Lou- 
isiana from  1802  to  1806,  and  published  a  volume 
containing  the  results  of  his  observations  there, 
thus  speaks  of  the  condition  of  the  slaves  : 

"  "While  they  are  at  labor,  the  manager,  the 
master,  or  the  driver  has  commonly  the  whip  in 
hand  to  strike  the  idle.  But  those  of  the  ne- 
groes who  are  judged  guilty  of  serious  faults,  are 
punished  twenty,  twenty-five,  forty,  fifty,  or  one 
hundred  lashes.  The  manner  of  tliis  cruel  exe- 
cution is  as  follows  :  four  stakes  are  driven  down, 
making  a  long  square  ;  the  culprit  is  extended 
naked  between  these  stakes,  face  downwards ; 
his  hands  and  his  feet  are  bound  separately,  with 
strong  cords,  to  each  of  the  stakes,  so  far  apart 
that  his  arms  and  legs,  stretched  in  the  form  of 
St.  Andrew's  cross,  give  the  the  poor  wretch  no 
chance  of  stirring.  Then  the  executioner,  who 
is  ordinarily  a  negro,  armed  with  the  long  whip 
of  a  Coachman,  strikes  upon  the  reins  and  thighs. 


The  crack  of  his  whip  resounds  afar,  like  that  of 
an  angry  cartman  beating  his  horses.  The  blood 
flows,  the  long  wounds  cross  each  other,  strips  of 
skin  are  raised  without  softening  either  the  hand 
of  the  executioner  or  the  heart  of  the  master, 
who  cries  '  sting  him  harder.' 

"  The  reader  is  moved  ;  so  am  I :  my  agitated 
hand  refuses  to  trace  the  bloody  picture,  to  re- 
count how  many  times  the  piercing  cry  of  pain 
has  interrupted  my  silent  occupations  ;  how  many 
times  I  have  shuddered  at  the  faces  of  those  bar- 
barous masters,  where  I  saw  inscribed  the  num- 
ber of  victims  sacrificed  to  their  ferocity. 

"  The  women  are  subjected  to  these  punish- 
ments as  rigorously  as  the  men — not  even  preg- 
nancy exempts  them  ;  in  that  case,  before  bind- 
ing them  to  the  stakes,  a  hole  is  made  in  the 
ground  to  accommodate  the  enlarged  form  of  the 
victim. 

"  It  is  remarkable  that  the  white  Creole  wo- 
men are  ordinarily  more  inexorable  than  the  men. 
Their  slow  and  languid  gait,  and  the  trifling  servi. 
ces  which  they  impose,  betoken  only  apathetic  in- 
dolence ;  but  should  tlie  slave  not  promptly  obey, 
should  he  even  fail  to  divine  the  meaning  of 
their  gestures,  or  looks,  in  an  instant  they  are 
armed  with  a  formidable  whip ;  it  is  no  longer 
the  arm  which  cannot  sustahi  the  weight  of  a 
shawl  or  a  reticule — it  is  no  longer  the  form 
which  but  feebly  sustains  itself.  Tiiey  them- 
selves order  the  punishment  of  one  of  these  poor 
creatures,  and  with  a  dry  eye  see  their  victim 
bound  to  four  stakes  ;  they  count  the  blows,  anc 
raise  a  voice  of  menace,  if  the  arm  that  strikcx 
relaxes,  or  if  the  blood  docs  not  flow  in  suflicient 
abundance.  Their  sensibility  changed  to  fury 
must  needs  feed  itself  for  a  while  on  the  hideous 
spectacle  ;  they  must,  as  if  to  revive  themselves, 
hear  the  piercing  shrieks,  and  see  the  flow  of 
fresh  blood  ;  tjiere  are  some  of  them  v.'ho,  in  their 
frantic  rage,  pinch  and  bite  their  victims. 

"  It  is  by  no  means  wonderful  that  the  laws 
designed  to  protect  the  slave,  should  be  little  re- 
spected by  the  generality  of  such  masters.  I 
have  seen  some  masters  pay  thoFC  unfortunate 
people  the  miserable  overcoat  which  is  their  due  ; 
but  others  give  them  nothing  at  all,  and  do  not 
even  leave  them  the  hours  and  Sundays  granted 
to  them  by  law.  I  have  seen  some  of  those  bar- 
barous masters  leave  them,  during  the  vkfintcr,  in 
a  state  of  revolting  nudity,  even  contrary  to  their 
own  true  interests,  for  they  thus  weaken  and 
shorten  the  lives  upon  which  repose  the  whole  of 
their  own  fortunes.  I  have  seen  some  of  tlioso 
negroes  obliged  to  conceal  their  nakedness  with 
the  long  moss  of  the  country.  The  sad  melan- 
choly of  these  wretches,  depicted  upon  tlieir  coun- 
tenances, the  flight  of  some,  and  the  death  of 
others,  do  not  reclaim  their  masters  ;  they  v/reak 
upon  those  who  remain,  the  vengeance  whicli 
they  can  no  longer  exercise  upon  the  others.'' 

Whitman  Mead,  Esq.  of  New  York,  in  his 
journal,  published  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  under  date  of 

" Savannah,  January  28,  1817. 

♦'  To  one  not  accustomed  to  such  scenes  as 
slavery  presents,  the  condition  of  the  slaves  is 
impressively   shocking.      In  the   course  of  my 


60 


General  Testimony — Cruelties. 


walks,  I  was  every  where  witness  to  their  wretch- 
edness. Like  the  brute  creatures  of  the  north, 
they  are  driven  about  at  the  pleasure  of  all  who 
meet  them  :  half  naked  and  half  stai-ved,  they 
drag  out  a  pitiful  existence,  apparently  almost 
unconscious  of  what  they  suffer.  A  threat  ac- 
companies every  command,  and  a  bastinado  is 
the  usual  reward  of  disobedience." 

TESTIMONY  OF  REV.  JOHN'  RANKIN, 

A  native  of  Tennessee,  educated  there,  and  for  a 

ntimher  of  years  a  preacher  in  slave  states — noio 

pastor  of  a  church  in  Ripley,  Ohio. 

"  Many  poor  slaves  are  stripped  naked,  stretch- 
ed and  tied  across  barrels,  orlarg-c  bags,  and  tor- 
tured with  the  lasli  during  hours,  and  even  whole 
days,  until  their  jlesh  is  mangled  to  the  very 
hones.  Others  arc  stripped  and  hung  up  by  tlie 
arms,  their  feet  are  tied  together,  and  the  end  of 
a  heavy  piece  of  timber  is  put  between  their  legs 
in  order  to  stretch  their  bodies,  and  so  prepare 
them  for  the  torturing  lash — and  in  this  situation 
they  are  often  whipped  until  their  bodies  are 
covered  with  blond  and.  mangled  flesh — and  in 
order  to  add  the  greatest  keenness  to  their  sufltr- 
ings,  their  wounds  arc  washed  with  liquid  salt  I 
And  some  of  the  miserable  creatures  are  permit- 
ted to  hang  in  that  position  until  they  actually 
expire ;  some  die  under  the  lash,  others  linger 
about  for  a  time,  and  at  length  die  of  their 
wounds,  and  many  survive,  and  endure  again 
similar  torture.  These  bloody  scenes  are  con- 
stantly exhibiting  in  every  slaveholding  country 
— thousands  of  irhips  are  every  day  stained  in 
African  blood .'  Even  the  poor /cmaZes  are  not 
permitted  to  escape  these  shocking  cruelties." — 
Rankin's  Letters,  pages  57,  .58. 

These  letters  were  published  fifteen  years 
ago. — They  were  addressed  to  a  brother  in  Vir- 
ginia, who  was  a  slaveholder. 

TESTIMONY    OF    THE     AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SO- 
CIETY. 

"  We  have  heard  of  slavery  as  it  exists  in 
Asia,  and  Africa,  and  Turkey — we  have  heard  of 
the  feudal  slavery  under  which  the  peasantry  of 
Europe  have  groaned  from  the  days  of  Alaric 
until  now,  but  excepting  only  the  horrible  system 
of  the  West  India  Islands,  we  have  never  heard 
of  slavery  in  an}^  country,  ancient  or  modern, 
Pagan,  Mohammedan,  or  Christian  !  so  terrible  in 
its  character,  as  the  slavery  whieli  exists  in  these 
United  States." — Seventh  Report  American  Colo- 
nization Society,  1824. 

TESTIMONY  OF  THE  GRADUAL    EMANCIPATION    SOCIE- 
TY OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Signed  by  Moses  Swain,  President,  and  William 
Swain,  Secretary. 
"  In  the  eastern  part  of  the  state,  the  slaves 
considerably  outnumber  the  free  population. 
Their  situation  is  there  wretched  beyond  de- 
scription. Impoverished  by  the  mismanagement 
which  wc  have  already  attempted  to  describe, 
the  master,  unable  to  support  his  own  grandeur 
and  maintain  his  slaves,  puts  the  unfortunate 
wretches  upon  short  allowances,  scarcely  suffi. 
cient  for  their  sustenance,  so  that  a  great  part 
of  them  go  half  naked  and  half  starved  much  of 
the  time.     Generally,  throughout  the  state,  the 


African  is  an  abused,  a  monstrously  outraged 
creature." — See  Minutes  of  the  American  Conven. 
tion,  convened  in  Baltimore,  Oct.  25,  1826. 

FROM  KILES'    BALTIMORE    REGISTER  FOR    1829,  VOL. 

35,  p.  4. 
'*  Dealing  in  slaves  has  become  a  large  busi- 
ness. Establishments  are  made  at  several  places 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  at  which  they  are  sold 
like  cattle.  These  places  of  deposit  are  strongly 
built,  and  well  supplied  with  iron  thuinb-screws 
and  gags,  and  ornamented  with  cowskins  and 
other  whips — often  times  bloody." 

Judge  Ruffin,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  North 
Carolina,  in  one  of  his  judicial  decisions,  says — 

"  The  slave,  to  remain  a  slave,  must  feel  that 
there  is  no  appeal  from  his  master.  No  man 
can  anticipate  the  provocations  which  the  slave 
would  give,  nor  the  consequent  wrath  of  the 
master,  prompting  him  to  BLOODY  VEN. 
GEANCE  on  the  turbulent  traitor,  a  vengeance 
generally  practiced  with  impunity,  by  reason  of 
its  PRIVACY." — See  Wheelefs  Law  of  Slavery  p. 
247. 

Mr.  Moore,  of  Virginia,  in  his  speech  before 
the  Legislature  of  that  state,  Jan,  15,  1832,  says: 

"  It  must  be  confessed,  that  although  the 
treatment  of  our  slaves  is  in  the  general,  as  mild 
and  humane  as  it  can  be,  that  it  must  always 
happen,  that  there  will  be  found  hundreds  of  in- 
dividuals, who,  owing  either  to  the  natural  fe- 
rocity of  their  dispositions,  or  to  the  effects  of 
intemperance,  will  be  guilty  of  cruelty  and  bar- 
barity towards  their  slaves,  wliieh  is  almost  ?'»)- 
tolerable,  and  at  which  humanity  revolts." 

testimony  of  B.  swain,  ESQ.,  of  north  CAROLINA. 

"  Let  any  man  of  spirit  and  feeling,  for  a  mo- 
ment cast  his  thoughts  over  this  land  of  slaver}- — 
think  of  the  nakedness  of  some,  the  hungry  yearn- 
ings of  others,  the  flowing  tears  and  heaving 
sighs  of  parting  relations,  the  wailings  and  wo, 
the  bloody  cut  of  the  keen  lash,  and  the  frightful 
scream  that  rends  the  very  skies — and  all  this  to 
gratify  ambition,  lust,  pride,  avarice,  vanity,  and 
other  depraved  feelings  of  the  human  heart.  .  .  . 
THE  WORST  JS  NOT  GENERALLY 
KNOWN.  Were  all  the  miseries,  the  hon'orsof 
slavery,  to  burst  at  once  into  view,  a  peal  of 
seven-fold  thunder  could  scarce  strike  greater 
alarm." — See  "  Sicain's  Address,"  1830. 

testimony  of  dr.  JAMES  C.  FINLEY, 

Son  of  Dr.  Finley,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Col- 
onizntion  Society,  and  brother  of  R.  S.  Finley, 
agent  of  the  American  Colonization  Society. 
Dr.  J.  C.  Finley  was  formerly  one  of  the  edi- 
tors of  the  Western  Medical  .Journal,  at  Cincin- 
nati, and  is  well  known   in  the  west  as  utterly 
hostile  to  immediate  abolition. 

"  In  almost  the  last  conversation  I  had  with 
you  before  I  left  Cincinnati,  I  promised  to  give 
you  some  account  of  some  scenes  of  atrocious 
cruelty  towards  slaves,  which  I  witnessed  while 
I  lived  at  the  south.  I  almost  resret  having 
made  the  promise,  for  not  only  are  they  so  atro' 
cious  that  you  will  with  diflieulty  believe  them, 
but  I  also  fear  that  they  will  have  the  effect  of 


General.  Testimony — Cruelties. 


61 


driving  you  into  that  cbolitionism,  upon  the  bor- 
ders of  which  you  have  been  so  long  hesitating. 
The  people  of  the  north  are  ignorant  of  the  hor- 
vors  of  slaveri/ — of  the  a'rocities  which  it  com- 
mits upon  the  unprotected  slave.       *         *         * 

"  I  do  not  know  that  any  thing  could  be  gain- 
ed by  particularizing  the  scenes  of  horrible  bar- 
barity, which  fell  under  my  observation  during 
my  short  residence  in  one  of  the  wealthiest,  most 
mtelligcnt,  and  moiit  moral  parts  of  Georgia. 
Their  number  and  atrocity  arc  »uch,  that  I  am 
confident  they  would  gain  credit  with  none  but 
abolitionists.  Every  thing  will  be  conveyed  in 
the  remark,  that  in  a  state  of  society  calculated 
to  foster  the  worst  ])assions  of  our  nature,  the 
elave  derives  no  protection  either  from  law  or 
public  opinion,  and  that  all  the  cruelties  which 
the  Russians  are  reported  to  have  acted  towards 
the  Poles,  after  tJicir  'late  subjugation,  ark 
SCENES  OP  EVEiiY-DAY  OCCURRENCE  in  the  soutliem 
states.  This  statement,  incredible  as  it  may 
Beem,  falls  short,  very  far  short  of  the  truth." 

The  foregoing  is  extracted  from  a  letter  writ- 
ten by  Dr.  Finley  to  Rev.  Asa  Mahan,  his  former 
pastor,  then  of  Cincinnati,  now  President  of 
Oberlin  Seminary. 

TESTIMONY  OF    REV.  WILLIAM  I'.  ALLAN,  OF    ILLINOIS, 

Son  of  a  Slaveholder,  Rev.  Dr.  Allan  of  Hunts- 
ville,  Ala. 
"  At  our  house  it  is  so  common  to  hear  their 
(the  slaves')  screams,  that  we  think  nothing  of 
it :  and  lest  any  one  should  think  that  in  general 
the  slaves  are  well  treated,  let  me  be  distinctly 
understood  : — cruelty  is  the  rule,  and  kindness 
the  exception." 

Extract  of  a  letter  dated  July  2d,  18.34,  from 
Mr.  Nathan  Cole,  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  to 
Arthur  Tappan,  Esq.  of  this  city  : 

"  I  am  not  an  advocate  of  the  immediate  and 
unconditional  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  our 
country,  yet  no  man  has  ever  yet  depicted  the 
xcretchedness  of  the  situation  of  the  slaves  in  co- 
lors too  dark  for  the  truth.  ...  I  know  that  many 
good  people  are  not  aware  of  the  treatment  to 
which  slaves  are  usnully  subjected,  nor  have  they 
any  just  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  evil." 

TESTIMONY    OF    REV.    JAMES    A.    THOME, 

A  native  of  Kentucky — Son   of  Arthur   Thome 
Esq.,  till  recently  a  Slaveholder. 

"  Slavery  is  the  parent  of  more  suffering  than 
has  flowed  from  any  one  source  since  the  date  of 
its  existence.  Such  sufferings  too !  Suffer- 
ings inconceivable  and  innumerable — itnmingled 
wretchedness  from  the  ties  of  nature  rudely 
broken  and  dcstioycd,  the  ncutest  bodily  tortures, 
groans,  tears  and  blood — lying  for  ever  in  weari- 
ness and  painfulness,  in  watchings,  in  hunger 
and  in  thirst,  in  cold  and  nakedness. 

"  Brethren  of  the  North,  be  not  deceived. 
These  sufferings  still  exist,  and  despite  the  ef- 
forts of  their  cruel  authors  to  hush  them  down, 
and  confine  tliem  within  the  precincts  of  their 
own  plantations,  they  will  ever  and  anon,  strug- 
gle up  and  reach  the  ear  of  humanity." — Mr. 
Thome's  Speech  at  New  York,  May,  1834. 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    MARYVILLE    (TENNESSEE) 
INTELLIGENCER,    OF  OCT.  4,  1835. 

The  Editor,  in  speaking  of  the  sufferings  of 
the  slaves  which  are  taken  by  the  internal  trade 
to  the  South  West,  says  : 

"  Place  yourself  in  imagination,  for  a  mo- 
ment, in  their  condition.  With  heavy  galling 
chains,  riveted  upon  your  person  ;  half-naked, 
half-starved;  your  back  lacerated  with  th-i 
'  knotted  Wliip ;'  traveling  to  a  region  where 
your  condition  through  time  will  be  second  only 
to  the  loretched  creatures  in  Hell. 

"  This  depicting  is  not  visionary.  Would  to 
God  that  it  was." 

TESTIMONY    OF   THE    PRESBYTERIAN    SYNOD    OF 
KENTUCKY  ; 

A  large  majority  of  whom  are  slaveholders. 

"  This  system  licenses  and  produces  great 
cruelty. 

"  Mangling,  imprisonment,  starvation,  every 
species  of  torture,  may  be  inflicted  upon  him, 
(the  slave,)  and  he  has  no  redress. 

"  There  are  now  in  our  whole  land  two  mil- 
lions of  human  beings,  exposed,  defenceless,  to 
every  insult,  and  every  injury  short  of  maiming 
or  death,  which  their  fellow-men  may  choose  to 
inflict.  They  suffer  all  that  can  be  inflicted  by 
wanton  caprice,  by  grasping  avarice,  by  brutal 
lust,  by  malignant  spite,  and  by  insane 
anger.  Their  happiness  is  the  sport  of  every 
whim,  and  the  prey  of  every  passion  that  may, 
occasionally,  or  habitually,  infest  the  master's 
bosom.  If  we  could  calculate  the  amount  of 
wo  endured  by  ill-treated  slaves,  it  would  over- 
whelm every  compassionate  heart — it  would 
move  even  the  obdurate  to  sympathy.  There  is 
also  a  vast  sum  of  suffering  inflicted  upon  the 
slave  by  humane  masters,  as  a  punishmL-nt  for 
that  idleness  and  misconduct  which  slavery  na- 
turally produces.  *  *  * 

"  Brutal  stripes  and  all  the  varied  kinds  of 
personal  indignities,  are  not  the  only  species  of 
cruelty  which  slavery  licenses."  *  * 

Testimony  OF  THE  Rev.  N.  H.  Harding,  Pastor 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  Oxford,  North 
Carolina,  a  slaveholder. 

"  I  am  greatly  surprised  that  you  should  in  any 
form  have  been  the  apologist  of  a  system  so  full 
of  deadly  poison  to  all  holiness  and  benevolence 
as  slavery,  the  concocted  essence  of  fraud,  sel- 
fishness, and  cold  hearted  tyranny,  and  the  fruit- 
ful parent  of  unnumbered  evils,  both  to  the  op- 
pressor and  the  oppressed,  the  one  thousandth 

PART     OF     WHICH     HAS     NEVER     BEEN     BROUGHT   TO 
LIGHT." 

Mr.  Asa  A.  Stone,  a  theological  student,  who 
lived  near  Natchez,  (Mi.,)  in  1834  and  5,  sent  the 
following  with  other  testimony,  to  be  published 
under  his  own  name,  in  the  N.  Y.  Evangelist, 
while  he  was  still  residing  there. 

"  Floggings  for  all  offences,  including  defi- 
ciencies in  work,  arc  frightfully  cominon,  and 
most  terribly  severe. 

"  Rubbing  with  salt  and  red  pepper  is  very  com- 
man  after  a  severe  whipping," 


62 


Punishments — Floggings. 


Testimony  of  Rev.  Phineas  Smith,  Cent rcvillc, 
Allegan}' ,Co.,  N.  Y.  who  lived  four  years  at  the 
south. 

"  Tliey  arc  badly  clothed,  badly  fed,  wretch- 
edly lod<red,  unmercifully  whipped,  from  month 
to  month,  from  year  to  year,  from  childhood  to 
old  age." 

Rev.  Joseph  M.  Sadd,  Castile,  Genessee  Co. 
N.  Y.  who  was  till  recently  a  preacher  in  Mis- 
somi,  says, 

"  It  is  true  that  barbarous  cruelties  are  inflict, 
ed  upon  tjum,  such  as  terrible  lacerations  with 
the  whip,  and  excruciating  tortures  are  sometimes 
experienced  from  the  thumb  screw." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Sarah  M.  Grimke, 
dated  4th  Month,  2nd,  1839. 

"  If  the  following  extracts  from  letters  which 
I  have  received  from  South  Carolina,  will  be  of 
any  use  thou  art  at  liberty  to  publish  them.  I 
need  not  say,  that  the  names  of  the  writers  are 
withheld  of  necessity,  because  such  sentiments  if 
uttered  at  the  south  would  peril  their  lives. 

extracts. 
'  South  Carolina,  4th  Month,  5th,  1835. 

'  With    regard    to    slavery    I    must    confess, 


though  we  had  heard  a  great  deal  on  the  pub- 
jeet,  we  found  on  coming  South  the  half,  the 
worst  half  too,  had  not  beentold  us ;  not  that  we 
have  ourselves  seen  mucli  oppression,  though 
truly  we  have  felt  its  deadenmg  influence,  but 
the  accounts  we  have  received  from  every  tongue 
that  nobly  dares  to  speak  upon  the  subject, 
are  indeed  deplorable.  To  quote  the  language 
of  a  lady,  who  with  true  Southern  hospitality, 
received  us  at  her  mansion.  "  The  northern 
people  don't  know  anything  of  slavery  at  a!!, 
they  think  it  is  perpetual  bondage  merely,  but  of 
the  depth  of  degradation  that  that  word  involves, 
they  have  no  conception  ;  if  they  had  any  just 
idea  of  it,  they  would  I  am  sure  use  every  effort 
until  an  end  was  put  to  such  a  shocking  system.' 
"  Another  friend  writing  from  South  Carolina, 
and  who  sustains  herself  the  legal  relation  of 
slaveholder,  in  a  letter  dated  April  4th,  1838, 
says — '  I  have  some  time  since,  given  you  my 
views  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  which  so  much 
engrosses  your  attention.  I  would  most  willing- 
ly forget  what  I  have  seen  and  heard  in  my  own 
family,  with  regard  to  the  slaves.  /  shudder 
when  I  think  of  it,  and  mcreasingly  feel  that 
slavery  is  a  curse  since  it  leads  to  such  cruelty.^ " 


PUNISHMENTS 


I.  FLOGGINGS. 


The  slaves  are  terribly  lacerated  with  whips, 
paddles,  &c.  ;  red  pepper  and  salt  are  rubbed 
info  their  mangled  flesh  ;  hot  brine  and  turpen-' 
tine  are  poured  into  their  gashes  ?  and  innumer- 
able other  tortures  inflicted  upon  them. 

We  wiil  in  the  first  place,  prove  by  a  cloud  of 
witnesses,  that  the  slaves  are  whipped  with  such 
inhuman  severity,  as  to  lacerate  and  mangle 
tlieir  flesh  in  the  most  shocking  manner,  leaving 
permanent  scars  and  ridges;  after  establishing 
this,  we  will  present  a  mass  of  testimony,  con- 
cerning a  great  variety  of  other  tortures.  The 
testimony,  for  the  most  part,  will  be  that  of  the 
elavcholdcrs  tJiemrclves,  and  in  tlieir  own  chosen 
words.  A  large  portion  of  it  will  be  taken  from 
the  advertisements,  which  they  have  published 
in    their    own   newspapers,    describing    by   the 

WITNESSES.  TESTIMONY. 

Mr.  D.  Judd,  jailor,  Davidson   Co.,         «'  Committed  to  jail  as  a  runaway,  a   negro   woman  named 
Dcc."l0th!'l838!"' "  ^'^"^'"''"'^  '^''"°"'"     Martha,    17   or  18   years  of  age,  has  numerous    scars  of   the 

whip  on  her  back." 

Mr.  Robert  NicoU,  Dauphin  st.  be-         "Ten  dollars  reward  for  my  woman  Siby,  very  much  scarred 

tween  Emmanuel  and  Concoption  st's,  „/,„    <  <?     „  ,;.„„,;     „_„  A-.  ■«>.,■»>«,■»./,■>' 

Mobile,  Alabama,  in  the  "  Mobile  Com-  ^^O"'  '*«  ««<^^  «"«  <^«'^«  %  '^hipping. 
Diorcial  Advertiser." 

Mr.    Bryant    Johnson,  Fort  Valloy,         •»  Ranaway,  a  nenrro  woman,  named  Maria,  some  scars  on  her 

Houston  t;(i.,Oooreia,  in  the  "  Standard  i„,i, _•„_   j  ;..,  Tl.,  .„2,;^  » 

of  TJnion,"  MilledgeViUe   Ga.  Oct.    2,  ^«'^'^  occasioned  by  the  whip. 
IHHS. 

Mr.  James  T.   Dc  Jamctt,  Vernon,         n  Stolen  a  negro  woman,  named  Celia.     On  examining  hfit 
^Tazeue.'-^'juK  H,'  l'^'  "  '''"""     ^ack  you  will  find  marks  caused  by  the  rchip." 


scars  on  their  bodies  made  by  the  whip,  their 
own  runaway  slaves.  To  copy  these  advertise- 
ments entire  would  require  a  great  amount  of 
space,  and  flood  the  reader  with  a  vast  mass  of 
matter  irrelevant  to  the  point  before  us  ;  we 
shall  therefore  insert  only  so  much  of  each,  as 
will  intelligibly  set  forth  the  precise  point  under 
consideration.  In  the  column  under  the  word 
"  witnesses,"  will  be  found  the  name  of  the  indi. 
vidual,who  signs  the  advertisement,  or  for  whom  it 
is  signcd,with  his  or  her  place  of  residence,  and  the 
name  and  date  of  the  paper,  in  which  it  appear- 
ed, and  generally  the  name  of  the  place  where  it 
is  published.  Opposite  the  name  of  each  witness, 
will  be  an  extract,  from  the  advertisement,  con- 
taining his  or  her  testimony. 


PMnw^men/s— Floggings . 


63 


WITNESSES. 

Maurice  Y.  Garcia,  Sheriff  of  the 
County  of  Jefferson,  La.,  in  the  "  New 
Orleans  Bcc,"  August,  11, 1838. 

R.  J.  Bland,  Shoriff  of  Claiborne  Co, 

Miss.,  in  tlie  "  Oliurleston  (S.C.)  Cou- 
riff,"  August,  -23,  li?33. 

Mr.  James  Noe,  Red  River  Landing, 
La.,  in  the  "  Sentinel,"  Vicksburg, 
Miss.,  August  22,  1837. 

William  Craze,  jailor,  Alexandria,  La. 
in  the  "Planter's  Intelligencer,"  Sept. 
26,  1838. 

John  A.  Rowland,  jailor,  liumberton. 
North  Carolii:a,  in  the  "  Fayctteville 
(N.  C.)  Observer,"  June  20, 1838. 

J.  K.  Roberts,  sheriff,  Blount  county, 
Ala.,  in  the  Huntsville  Democrat," 
Dec.  9, 1838. 

Sir.  H.  Variliat,  No.  23  Girod  street, 
New  Orleans — in  the  "  Commercial 
Bulletin,"  August  27,  1838. 

Mr.  Cornelius  D.  Tolin,  Augusta.  Ga., 
in  the  "  Chronicle  and  Sentinel,"  Oct. 
18,  1838. 

W.  II.  Brasseale,  sherift".  Blount  coun- 
ty, Ala.,  in  tile  "  Iluntsville  Democrat." 
June  y,  1838. 


TESTIMONY. 


"  Lodged  in  jail,  a  mulatto   boy,   having  large  7narks  of  the 
whip,  on  his  shoulders  and  other  parts  of  his  body." 

"  Was  committed  a  negro  boy,  named  Tom,  is  much  marked 
with  the  whip." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  fellow  named  Dick — has  many  scars  on  hio 
back  from  being  ichipped." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro    slave — his  back  is  very  badly 
scan-ed." 

"  Committed,  a  mulatto  fellow — his  back   shows  lasting  im- 
pressions  of  the  whip,  and  leaves  no  doubt  of  his  being  a  slave." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man — his  back  much  marked  by 
the  whip." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negro  slave  named  Jupiter — has  a  fresk  mark 
of  a  cowskiii  on  one  of  his  cheeks." 

"  Ranaway,  a   negro  man  named   Johnson — he  has  a  great 
many  marks  of  the  whip  on  his  back." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  slave  named  James — much  scarred 
with  a  whip  on  his  back." 

Mr.  Robert  Beasley,  Macon,  Ga.,  in  "  Ranaway,  my  man  Fountain — he  is  marked  on  the  back  with 

tlie  "  Georgia  Messenger,"  July  27,  1837.     fJie  whip." 

Mr.  John  Wotton,  Rockvifle,  Mont-  "  Ranaway,  Bill — has  several  large  scars  on  his  back  from  a 

gomcry  county,  Maryland    ia  the  "Bal-  whipping  in  early  life." 

wmnre  Republican,    Jan.  13,  IbJo.  rf     b  y 

D.  S.  Bennett   sheriff,  Natchitoches  "  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  boy  who  calls  himself  Joe — said 

La.,  in  the  "  Herald,"  July  21, 1838.  negro  bears  inarks  of  the  whip." 

Messrs.  C.C.  Whitehead,  and  R.  A.  „                                ,.  „         t  ,         j-         t.   -          i  •        j    i 

Evans,  Mai  ion,  Georgia,  in  the    Mil-  "Ranaway,  negro  fellow  John — irom  being  whipped,  has  scars 

ledgeviUe  (Ga.)  "  Standard  of  Uuion,"  on  his  back,  arms,  and  thighs." 
June  26,  1838. 


Mr.  Samuel  Stewart,  Greensboro", 
.Ma.,  in  the  "  Southern  Advocate," 
Huntsville,  Jan.  6, 1838. 

Mr.  John  Walker,  No.  6,  Banks'  Ar- 
cade, New  Orleans,  in  the  "  Bulletin," 
August  11, 1838. 

Mr.  .Tease  Beenc,  Cahawba,  Ala.,  in 
the  "State  Intelligencer,"  Tuskaloosa, 
Dec.  25, 1337. 

Mr.  John  Turner,  Thomaston,  Upson 
county,  Georgia— in  the  "Standard  of 
Union,"  MiUeUgcviUe,  June  20. 1838. 

James  Derrah,  deputy  sheriff,  Cl.-ii- 
bome  county,  Mi.,  in  the  "Port  Gibson 
(Jorrespondenl,"  Ai)ril  15,  1837. 

S.  B.  Murphy,  sheriff.  Wilkinson 
county,  Georgia— in  the  aiilledgevilla 
"Journal,"  May  15,  1838. 


"  Ranaway,  a  boy  named  Jim — with  the  marks  of  the  whip  on 
the  small  of  the  back,  reaching  roimd  to  the  flank." 

"  Ranaway,  ths  mulatto  boy  Quash — considerably  marked  on 
the  back  and  other  places  with  the  lash. 

"  Ranaway,  my  negro  man  Billy — he  has  the  marks  of  the 
whip." 

"  Left,  my  negro  man  named  George — has  marks  of  the  whip 
very  plain  on  his  thighs." 

"Committed  to  jail,  negro  man  Toy — he  has  been  badly 
whipped." 

"  Brought  to  jail,  a  negro  man  named  George — ^he  has  a  great 
many  scars  from  the  lash." 

"  One  hundred  dollars  reward,  for  my  negro  Glasgow,  and 
Kate,  his  wife.  Glasgow  is  24  years  old — has  marks  of  the  whip 
on  his  back.  Kate  is  26 — has  a  scar  on  her  cheek,  and  several 
marks  of  a  whip." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  boy  named  John,  about  17  years 
old — his  back  badly  marked  with  the  ichip,  his  upper  lip  and 
chin  severely  bruised." 

The  preceding  are  extracts  from  advertise-  |  dreds  of  similar  ones  pubhshed  during  the  same 
ments  published  in  southern  papers,  mostly  in  the  period,  with  which,  as  the  preceding  are  quite 
year  1838.     I'hey  are  the  mere  samples  of  hun- 1  sufficient  to  show  the  commonness  of  inhuman 


Mr.  L.  E.  Cooner,  Branchville  Orange- 
burgh  District.  South  Carolina — in  the 
Macon  "  Messenger,"  May  25,  1837. 


John  H.  Hand,  jailor,  parish  of  West 
Feliciana,  La.,  in  iho  St.  "  FrancisviUe 
Journal,"  July  6,  1837. 


64 


Punishments —  Floggings. 


floggings  in  the  slave  states,  we  need  not  burden 
the  reader. 

The  foregoing  testimony  is,  as  the  reader  per- 
Miives,  that  of  the  slavehoUUrs  themselves,  volun- 
tarily certifying  to  the  outrages  which  their  own 
hands  have  committed  upon  defenceless  and  in- 
nocent men  and  women,  over  whom  they  have 
assumed  authority.  We  have  given  to  Iheir  testi- 
mony precedence  over  that  of  all  other  witnesses, 
for  the  reason  that  when  men  testify  against 
themselves  they  are  under  no  temptation  to  ex- 
aggerate. 

We  v.'C  will  now  present  the  testimony  of  a 
large  number  of  individuals,  with  their  names  and 
residences,  of  persons  who  witnessed  the  inflictions 
to  wiiieli  they  testify.  Many  of  them  have  been 
slaveholders,  and  all  residents  for  longer  or  short- 
er periods  in  slave  states. 

Rev.  John  H,  Curtiss,  a  native  of  Keep  Creek, 
Norfolk  county,  Virginia,  now  a  local  preacher  of 
llie  Methodist  I^iscopal  Church  in  Portage  co., 
Ohio,  testifies  as  follows  : — 

"  In  1829  or  30,  one  of  my  father's  slaves  was 
accused  of  taking,  the  key  to  the  office  and  steal, 
ing  four  or  five  dollars  :  he  denied  it.  A  consta- 
ble by  the  name  of  Hull  was  called  ;  he  took  the 
negro,  very  deliberately  tied  his  hands,  and  whipped 
him  till  the  blood  ran  freely  down  his  legs.  By 
this  time  Hull  appeared  tired,  and  stopped  ;  he 
then  took  a  rope,  put  a  slip  noose  around  his  neck, 
and  told  the  negro  he  was  going  to  kill  him,  at 
the  same  time  drew  the  rope  and  began  whipping: 
the  negro  fell ;  his  cheeks  looked  as  though  they 
would  burst  with  strangulation.  Hull  whipped 
and  kicked  him,  till  I  really  thought  he  was  go- 
ing to  kill  him  ;  when  he  ceased,  the  negro  was  in 
a  complete  gore  of  blood  from  head  to  foot." 

Mr.  David  Hawlev,  a  class-leader  in  the  Me- 
thodist Church,  at  St.  Alban's,  Iiicking  county, 
Ohio,  who  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Ohio  in  1831, 
testifies  as  follows  : — 

"  In  the  year  1821  or  2,  I  saw  a  slave  hung  for 
killing  his  master.  The  master  had  whipped  the 
slave's  mother  to  death,  and,  locking  him  in  a 
room,  threatened  him  with  the  same  fate ;  and, 
e/ov.'hide  in  hand,  had  begun  the  work,  when  the 
slave  joined  battle  and  slew  the  master." 

Samuel  Ellison,  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  formerly  of  Southampton  county,  Vir- 
ginia, now  of  Marlborough,  Stark  county,  Ohio, 
gives  the  following  testimony  : — 

"  While  a  resident  of  Southampton  county,  Vir- 
ginia, I  knew  two  men,  after  having  been  severe- 
ly treated,  endeavor  to  make  their  escape.  In 
tliis  Ihey  faileJ — were  taken,  tied  to  trees,  and 
wliippc'd  to  death  by  their  overseer.  I  lived  a 
mile  from  the  negro  quarters,  and,  at  that  distance, 
could  frequently  hear  the  screams  of  the  poor 
creatures  when  beaten,  and  could  also  hear  the 
blows  given  by  the  overseer  with  some  heavy  in. 
strument." 

Major  Horace  NvE,  of  Putnam,  Ohio,  gives 


the  following  testimony  of  Mr.  Wm.  -Vrmstrong, 
of  that  place,  a  captain  and  supercargo  of  beats 
descending  tlic  Mississippi  river  : — 

"At  Bayou  Sarah,  I  saw  a  slave  staked  out, 
with  his  face  to  the  ground,  and  whipped  with  a 
large  whip,  which  laid  open  the  flesh  for  about 
two  and  a  half  inches  every  stroke.  1  stayed 
about  five  minutes,  but  could  stand  it  no  longer, 
and  left  them  whipping." 

Mr.  Stephen  E.  Maltbv,  inspector  of  provisions, 
Skeneateles,  New  York,  who  has  resided  in  Ala- 
bama, speaking  of  the  condition  of  the  slaves, 
says : — 

"  I  have  seen  them  cruelly  whipped.  I  will 
relate  one  instance.  One  Sabbath  morning,  be- 
fore I  got  out  of  my  bed,  I  heard  an  outcry,  and 
got  up  and  went  to  the  window,  when  I  saw 
some  six  or  eight  bo3's,  from  eight  to  twelve  years 
of  age,  near  a  rack  (made  for  tying  horses)  on  the 
public  square.  A  man  on  horseback  rode  up,  got 
ofl'his  horse,  took  a  cord  from  his  pocket,  tied  one 
of  the  boys  by  the  thumbs  to  the  rack,  and  with 
his  horsewhip  lashed  him  most  severely.  He 
then  untied  him  and  rode  off  without  saying  a 
word, 

"  It  was  a  general  practice,  W"hile  I  v/as  at 
Iluntsville,  Alabama,  to  have  a  patrol  every  night ; 
and,  to  my  knowledge,  this  patrol  was  in  the  habit 
of  traversing  the  streets  with  cow-skins,  and,  if 
they  found  any  slaves  out  after  eight  o'clock  with- 
out a  pass,  to  whip  them  until  they  were  out  of 
reach,  or  to  confine  them  until  morning." 

Mr.  J.  G.  Baldwin,  of  Middletown,  Connecti- 
cut, amembcr  of  the  ]Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
gives  the  following  testimony  : — 

"  I  traveled  at  the  south  in  1827  :  when  near 
Charlotte,  N.  C.  a  free  colored  man  fell  into  the 
readjust  ahead  of  me,  and  went  on  peaceably. — 
When  passing  a  public-house,  the  landlord  ran  out 
with  a  large  cudgel,  and  applied  it  to  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  the  man  with  such  force  as  to 
shatter  it  in  pieces.  When  the  reason  of  his  con- 
duct was  asked,  he  replied,  that  he  owned  slaves, 
and  he  would  not  permit  free  blacks  to  come  into 
his  neighborhood. 

"Not  long  after,  I  stopped  at  a  public-house 
near  Halifax,  N.  C,  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock 
P.  M.,  to  stay  over  night.  A  slave  sat  upon  a 
bench  in  the  bar-room  asleep.  The  master  came 
in,  seized  a  large  horsewhip,  and,  without  any 
warning  or  apparent  provocation,  laid  it  over  the 
face  and  eyes  of  the  slave.  Tlie  master  cui*scd, 
swore,  and  swung  his  lash — the  slave  cowered  and 
trembled,  but  said  not  a  word.  Upon  inquiry  thti 
next  morning,  I  ascertained  that  the  only  offence 
was  falling  asleep,  and  this  too  in  consequence  of 
having  been  up  nearly  all  the  previous  night,  in 
attendance  upon  company." 

Rev.  Joseph  M.  Sadd,  of  Castile,  N.  Y.,  who  has 
lately  left  Missouri,  where  lie  was  pastor  of  a 
church  for  some  years,  says : — 

"  In  one  ease,  near  where  wc  lived,  a  runaway 
slave,  when  brought  back,  was  most  cruelly  beat- 
en— bathed  in  the  usual  \u\u\d — laid  in  the  sun, 
and  a  physician  employed  to  heal  his  wounds  : — 
then  the  same  process  of  punishment  and  healing 


Punishments — Floggings. 


65 


was  repeated,  and  repeated  again,  and  then  the 
poor  creature  was  sold  for  the  New  Orleans  mar- 
ket. This  account  we  had  from  the  physician 
himself." 

Mr.  Abraham  Bell,  of  Poughkcepsie,  New 
York,  a  member  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian 
Church,  was  employed,  in  1837  and  38,  in  level- 
ling and  grading  for  a  rail-road  in  the  state  of 
Georgia  :  he  had  imder  his  direction,  during  the 
whole  time,  thirty  slaves.  Mr.  B.  gives  the  fol- 
lowing testimony : — 

"  All  the  slaves  had  their  backs  scarred,  from 
the  oft-repeated  whippings  they  had  received." 

Mr.  Alonzo  Barnard,  of  Farmington,  Ohio, 
who  was  in  Mississippi  in  1837  and  8,  says  : — 

"  The  slaves  were  often  severely  whipped.  I 
saw  one  looman  very  severely  whipped  for  acci 
dentally  cutting  up  a  stalk  of  cotton.*  When 
tliey  wero  whipped' they  were  commonly  held 
down  by  four  men  :  if  these  could  not  confine  them, 
they  were  fastened  by  stakes  driven  firmly  into 
the  ground,  and  then  lashed  often  so  as  to  draw 
blood  at  each  blow.  I  saw  one  woman  who  had 
lately  been  dL'livered  of  a  child  in  consequence  of 
cruel  treatment." 

Rev.  H.  Lyman,  late  pastor  of  the  Free  Presby- 
terian Church  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  says  : — 

"  There  was  a  steam  cotton  press,  in  the  vicinity 
of  my  boarding-house  at  New  Orleans,  which  was 
driven  night  and  day,  without  intermission.  My 
curiosity  led  mc  to  look  at  the  interior  of  the  estab- 
lishment. There  I  saw  several  slaves  engaged 
in  rolling  cotton  bags,  fastening  ropes,  lading 
carts,  &c. 

"  The  presiding  genius  of  the  place  was  a  driver, 
wiio  held  a  rope  four  feet  long  in  his  hand,  which 
he  wielded  with  cruel  dcxteritj'.  He  used  it  in 
single  blows,  just  as  the  men  were  lifting  to  tight, 
en  the  bale  cords.  It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was 
desirous  to  edify  me  with  a  specimen  of  his  autho- 
rity ;  at  any  rate  the  cruelty  was  horrible." 

Mr.  John  Vance,  a  member  of  the  Baptist 
Church,  in  St.  Albans,  Licking  county,  Ohio,  who 
moved  from  Culpepper  county,  Va.,  his  native 
state,  in  1814,  testifies  as  follows : — 

"  In  1826,  I  saw  a  woman  by  the  name  of 
Mallix,  flog  her  female  slave  with  a  horse-whip  so 
horribly  that  she  was  washed  in  salt  and  water 
several  days,  to  keep  her  bruises  from  mortifying, 

"In  1811,  I  was  returning  from  mill,  in  She- 
nandoah county,  when  I  heard  the  cry  of  murder, 
in  the  field  of  a  man  nam6d  Painter.  I  rode  to 
the  place  to  see  what  was  going  on.  Two  men, 
by  the  names  of  John  Morgan  and  Michael  Sig- 
lar,  had  heard  the  cry  and  came  running  to  the 
place.  I  saw  Painter  beating  a  negro  with  a  tre- 
mendous club,  or  small  handspike,  swearing  he 
would  kill  him ;  but  lie  was  rescued  by  Morgan 
and  Siglar.  I  learned  that  Painter  had  com- 
menced flogging  the  slave  for  not  getting  to  work 

*  Mr.  Comolius  Johnson,  of  Farmin£!ton,  Ohio,  was  also 
a  witness  to  this  inhuman  outrage  upon  an  unprotected  wo- 
man, for  the  unintentional  destruction  of  a  stalk  of  cotton ! 
In  his  testimony  he  is  more  particular,  and  says,  that  the 
number  of  lashes  inflicted  upon  her  by  tlie  overseer  wa" 

*  ONK  UrNDRED  ANB  FIFTY  I" 


soon  enough.  He  had  escaped,  and  taken  refuge 
under  a  pile  of  rails  that  were  on  some  timbers  up 
a  little  from  the  ground.  The  master  had  put  fire 
to  one  end,  and  stood  at  the  other  with  his  club, 
to  kill  him  as  he  came  out.  The  pile  was  still 
burning.  Painter  said  he  was  a  turbulent  fellow 
and  he  would  kill  him.  The  apprehension  of  P. 
was  TALKED  ABOUT,  but,  as  a  compromise,  the  ne- 
gro was  sold  to  another  man." 

Extract  from  the  fuelished  Journal  of  the 
LATE  Wm.  Saverv,  of  Philadelphia,  an  eminent 
minister  of  the  religious  Society  of  Friends  : — 

"6th  mo.  22d,  1791.  We  passed  on  to  Au- 
gusta, Georgia.  They  can  scarcely  tolerate  us, 
00  account  of  our  abhorrence  of  slavery.  On  the 
28th  we  got  to  Savannah,  and  lodged  at  one 
Blount's,  a  hard-hearted  slaveholder.  One  of  his 
lads,  aged  about  fourteen,  was  ordered  to  go  and 
milk  the  cows  :  and  falling  asleep,  through  wea- 
riness, the  master  called  out  and  ordered  him  a 
flogging.  1  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  a  flog- 
ging. He  replied,  the  way  we  serve  them  here 
is,  we  cut  their  backs  until  they  are  raw  all  over, 
and  then  salt  them.  Upon  this  my  feelings  were 
roused  :  I  told  him  that  was  too  bad,  and  queried 
if  it  were  possible  ;  he  replied  it  was,  with  many 
curses  upon  the  blacks.  At  supper  this  unfeeling 
wretch  craved  a  blessing .' 

"  Next  morning  I  heard  some  one  begging  for 
mercy,  and  also  the  lash  as  of  a  whip.  Not  know- 
ing whence  the  sound  came,  I  rose,  and  presently 
found  the  poor  boy  tied  up  to  a  post,  his  toes 
scarcely  touching  the  ground,  and  a  negro  whip- 
per.  He  had  already  cut  him  in  an  unmerciful 
manner,  and  the  blood  ran  to  his  heels.  I  step- 
ped in  between  them,  and  ordered  him  untied  im- 
mediately, which,  with  some  reluctance  and  as- 
tonishment, was  done.  Returning  to  the  house  I 
saw  the  landlord,  who  then  showed  himself  in  his 
true  colors,  the  morst  abominably  wicked  man  I 
ever  met  with,  full  of  horrid  execrations  and 
threatenings  upon  all  northern  people  ;  but  I  did 
not  spare  him  ;  which  occasioned  a  bystander  to 
say,  with  an  oath,  that  I  should  be  "popped 
over.''  Wc  left  them,  and  were  in  full  expecta- 
tion of  their  way-laying  or  coming  after  us,  but 
the  Lord  restrained  them.  The  next  house  we 
stopped  at  we  found  the  same  wicked  spirit " 

Col.  Elijah  Ellsworth,  of  Richfield,  Ohio, 
gives  the  following  testimony : — 

"  Eight  or  ten  years  ago  I  was  in  Putnam  coun- 
ty, in  the  state  of  Georgia,  at  a  Mr.  Slaughter's, 
the  father  of  my  brother's  wife.  A  negro,  that, 
belonged  to  Mr.  Walker,  (I  believe,)  was  accused 
of  stealing  a  pedlar's  trunk.  The  negro  denied, 
but,  without  ceremony,  was  lashed  to  a  tree — the 
whipping  commenced — six  or  eight  men  took 
turns — the  poor  fellow  begged  for  mercy,  but  with- 
out effect,  until  he  was  literally  cut  to  pieces,  from, 
his  shoulders  to  his  hips,  and  covered  with  a  gore 
of  blood.  When  he  said  the  trunk  was  in  a  stack 
of  fodder,  he  was  unlashed.  They  proceeded  to  tha 
stack,  but  found  no  trimk.  They  asked  the  poor 
fellow,  what  he  lied  about  it  for  ;  he  said,  "  Lord, 
Massa,  to  keep  from  being  whipped  to  death  ;  I 
know  nothing  about  the  trunk."  They  comraeneed 
the  whipping  with  redoubled  vigor,  until  I  really 
supposed  he  would  be  wliippcd  to  death  on  the 


66 


Punishments — Floggings. 


spot ;  and  such  shrieks  and  crying  for  mercy  ! —  | 
Again  lie  acknowledged,  and  again  they  were  de-  j 
feated  in  finding,  and  the  same  reason  given  as  ' 
before.     Some  were   for  wliipping  again,  others 
thought  he  would  not  survive  another,  and  they 
ceased.     About  two  montlus  after,  the  trunk  was 
found,  and  it  was  then  ascertained  who  the  thief 
was  :  and  the  poor  fellow,  after  being  nearly  beat 
to  death,  and  twice  made  to  lie  about  it,  was  as 
innocent  as  I  was." 

The  following  statements  are  furnished  by  Ma- 
jor Horace  Nye,  of  Putnam,  Muskingum  county, 
Ohio. 

"  In  the  summer  of  1837,  Mr.  .Toun  H.  Moore- 
HEAD,  a  partner  of  mine,  descended  the  Mississippi 
with  several  boat  loads  of  flour.  He  told  me  that 
floating  in  a  place  in  the  Mississippi,  where  he 
could  see  for  miles  a  head,  he  perceived  a  con- 
course of  people  on  the  bank,  tJiat  for  at  least  a 
mile  and  a  half  above  he  saw  them,  and  heard 
the  screams  of  some  person,  and  for  a  great  dis- 
tance, the  crack  of  a  whip,  he  run  near  the  shore, 
and  saw  them  whipping  a  black  man,  who  was 
on  the  ground,  and  at  that  time  nearly  unable  to 
scream,  but  the  whip  continued  to  be  plied 
without  intermission,  as  long  as  he  was  in  sight, 
say  from  one  mile  and  a  half,  to  two  miles  be- 
low— he  probably  saw  and  heard  them  for  one 
hour  in  all.  He  expressed  the  opinion  that  the 
man  could  not  survive. 

"  About  four  weeks  smce  I  had  a  conversation 
with  Mr.  Porter,  a  respectable  citizen  of  Morgan 
county,  of  this  state,  of  about  fifty  years  of  age. 
He  told  mc  that  he  formerly  traveled  about  five 
years  in  the  southern  states,  and  that  on  one  oc- 
casion he  stopped  at  a  private  house,  to  stay  all 
night ;  (I  think  it  was  in  Virginia,)  while  he  was 
conversing  with  the  man,  his  wife  came  in,  and 
complained  that  the  wench  had  broken  some  ar- 
ticle in  the  kitchen,  and  that  she  must  be  whip. 
ped.  He  took  the  woman  into  the  door  yard, 
stripped  her  clothes  down  to  her  hips — tied  her 
hands  together,  and  drawing  them  up  to  a  limb, 
so  that  she  could  just  touch  the  ground,  took  a 
very  large  cowskia  whip,  and  commenced  flog- 
ging ;  he  said  that  every  stroke  at  first  raised  the 
skin,  and  immediately  the  blood  came  throutrh ; 
tliis  he  continued,  until  the  blood  stood  in  a  pud- 
dle at  her  feet.  He  then  turned  to  my  informant 
and  said,  "  Well,  Yankee,  what  do  you  think  of 
that  ?" 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Mr.  W.  Dustin,  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and, 
when  the  letter  was  written,  1835,  a  student  of 
Marietta  College,  Ohio. 

"  I  find  by  looking  over  my  journal  that  the 
murdering,  which  I  spoke  of  yesterday,  took 
place  about  the  first  of  June,  1834. 

"  Without  commenting  upon  this  act  of  cruel- 
ty, or  giving  vent  to  my  own  feelings,  I  will  sim- 
ply give  you  a  statement  of  the  fact,  as  known 
from  personal  observation. 

"  Dr.  K.  a  man  of  wealth,  and  a  practising 
physician  in  the  county  of  Yazoo,  state  of  Mis- 
sissippi, personally  known  to  me,  having  lived 
in  the  same  neighborhood  more  than  twelve 
months,  after  having  scourged  one  of  his  negroes 
for  running  away,  declared  with  an  oath,  that  if  he 


ran  away  again,  he  would  kill  him.  The  negro, 
FO  soon  asan  opportunity  offered,  ran  avi'ay  again. 
He  was  caught  and  brought  back.  Again  he 
was  scoiu-gcd,  until  his  flesh,  mangled  and  torn, 
and  thick  mingled  with  the  clotted  blood,  rolled 
from  his  back.  He  became  apparently  insensible, 
and  beneath  the  heaviest  stroke  would  scarcely 
utter  a  groan.  The  master  got  tired,  laid  down 
his  whip  and  nailed  the  negro's  ear  to  a  tree ;  in 
this  condition,  nailed  fast  to  the  rugged  wood,  he 
remained  all  night! 

"  Suffice  it  to  say,  in  the  conclusion,  that  the 
next  day  he  was  found  dead  ! 

"  Well,  what  did  they  do  with  the  master  ? 
The  sum  total  of  it  is  this:  He  was  taken  before 
a  magistrate  and  gave  bonds,  for  his  appearance 
at  the  next  court.  Well,  to  be  sure  he  had  plen- 
ty of  cash,  so  he  ])aid  up  his  bonds  and  moved 
away,  and  there  the  matter  ended. 

"  If  tlie  above  fact  will  be  of  any  service  to 
you  in  exhibiting  to  the   world  the  condition  of 
the    unfortunate    negroes,   you  are  at  liberty  to 
make  use  of  it  in  any  way  you  think  best. 
Yours,  liaternally, 

M.  Dustin. 

Mr.  Alfred  Wilkinson,  a  member  of  the  Bap. 
tist  Church  in  Skeneateles,  N.  Y.  and  the  as- 
sessor of  that  town,  has  furnished  the  following  : 

"  I  went  down  the  Mississippi  in  December, 
1808,  and  saw  twelve  or  fourteen  negroes  punish- 
ed, on  one  plantation,  b}'  stretching  them  on  a 
ladder  and  tying  them  to  it ;  then  stripping  off  their 
clothes,  and  whipping  them  on  the  naked  flesh 
with  a  heavy  whip,  the  lash  seven  or  eight  feet 
long  :  most  of  the  strokes  cut  the  skin.  I  under- 
stood tlicy  were  whipped  for  not  doing  the  tasks 
allotted  to  them." 

From  the  Philanthropist,  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
Feb.  26,  1839. 

"  A  very  intelligent  lady,  the  widow  of  a  high- 
ly respectable  preacher  of  the  gospel,  of  the  Pres- 
byterian  Church,  formerly  a  resident  of  a  free 
state,  and  a  colonizationist,  and  a  strong  anti- 
abolitionist,  who,  altliough  an  enemy  to  s'averv, 
was  opposed  to  abolition  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  for  carrying  things  too  rapidly,  and  without 
regard  to  circumstances,  and  especially  who  be- 
lieved that  abolitionists  exaggerated  with  regard 
to  the  evils  of  slavery,  and  us«d  to  say  that  such 
men  ought  to  go  to  slave  states  and  see  for  them- 
selves, to  be  convinced  that  they  did  the  slave- 
holders injustice,  has  gone  and  seen  for  hertelf. 
Hear  her  testimony. 

Kentucky,  Dec.  25,  1835. 

"  Dear  Mrs.  W. — I  am  still  in  the  land  of  op- 
pression and  cruelty,  but  hope  soon  to  breathe 
the  air  of  a  free  state.  My  soul  is  sick  of  slavery, 
and  I  rejoice  that  my  time  is  nearly  expired  ;  hut 
the  scenes  that  I  have  witnessed  have  made  an 
impression  that  never  can  be  effaced,  and  have 
inspired  me  with  the  determination  to  unite  my 
feeble  efforts  with  those  who  arc  laboring  to  sup- 
press this  horrid  system.  lam  note  an  nbnliticn- 
i-'it.  You  will  cease  to  be  surprised  at  this,  when 
I  inform  you,  that  I  have  just  seen  a  poor  slave 
who  was  beaten  by  his  inhuman  mast' r  until  he 
could  neither  walk  nor  stand.  I  saw  him  from 
my  window  carried  from  the  barn  wlicre  he  had 


Punishments — Floggings. 


67 


been  whipped)  to  the  cabin,  by  two  negro  men  ; 
and  he  now  hes  there,  and  if  he  recovers,  will  be 
a  sufferer  for  months,  and  probably  for  life.  You 
will  doubtless  suppose  that  he  committed  some 
great  crime  ;  but  it  was  not  so.  He  was  called 
upon  by  a  young  man  (the  son  of  his  master,)  to 
do  something,,  and  not  moving  as  quickly  as  his 
young  master  wished  him  to  do,  he  drove  him  to 
the  barn,  knocked  him  down,  and  jumped  upon 
him,  stamped,  and  then  cowhided  him  until  he 
was  almost  dead.  This  is  not  the  first  act  of 
cruelty  that  I  have  seen,  though  it  is  the  worst ; 
and  I  am  convinced  that  those  who  have  des- 
cribed the  cruelties  of  slaveholders,  have  not  ex- 
aggerated." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Gerrit  Smith, 
Esq.,  of  Peterboro',  N.  Y. 

Peterboro',  December   1,  1838. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Union  Herald  : 

"My  dear  Sir : — 'V  ou  will  be  happy  to  hear,  that 
the  two  fugitive  slaves,  to  whom  in  the  brotherly 
love  of  your  heart,  you  gave  the  use  of  your 
horse,  are  still  making  undisturbed  progress  to- 
wards the  monarchical  land  whither  republican 
slaves  escape  for  the  enjoyment  of  liberty.  They 
had  eaten  their  breakfast,  and  were  seated  in  my 
wagon,  before  day-dawn,  this  morning. 

"  Fugitive  slaves  have  before  taken  my  house  in 
their  way,  but  never  any,  wliose  lips  and  persons 
made  so  forcible  an  appeal  to  my  sensibilities,  and 
kindled  in  me  so  much  abhorrence  of  the  hell- 
concocted  system  of  American  slavery. 

"The  fugitives  exhibited  their  bare  backs  to  my- 
self and  a  number  of  my  neighbors.  Williams' 
back  is  comparatively  scarred.  But,  I  speak  with- 
in bounds,  when  I  say,  that  one-third  to  one-half 
of  the  whole  surface  of  the  back  and  shoulders 
of  poor  Scott,  consists  of  scars  and  wales  result, 
ingfrom  innumerable  gashes.  His  natural  com- 
plexion being  yellow  and  the  callous  places  be- 
ing nearly  black,  his  back  and  shoulders  remind 
you  of  a  spotted  animal." 

The  Louisville  Reeportr  (Kentucky,)  Jan.  15, 
1839,  contains  the  report  of  a  trial  for  inhuman 
treatment  of  a  female  slave.  The  following  is  some 
of  the  testimony  given  in  court. 

"  Dr.  Constant  testified  that  he  saw  Mrs.  Max- 
well at  the  kitchen  door,  whipping  the  negro  se- 
verely, without  being  particular  whether  she 
struck  her  in  the  face  or  not.  The  negro  was  la- 
cerated by  the  whip,  and  the  blood  flowing.  Soon 
after,  on  going  down  the  steps,  he  saw  quantities 
of  blood  on  them,  and  on  returning,  saw  them 
again.  She  had  been  thinly  clad — barefooted  in 
very  cold  weather.  Sometimes  sho  had  shoes — 
sometimes  not.  In  the  beginning  of  the  winter 
she  had  linsev  dresses,  since  then,  calico  ones. 
During  the  last  four  months,  had  noticed  many 
scars  on  her  person.  At  one  time  had  one  of  her 
eyes  tied  up  for  a  week.  During  the  last  three 
months  seemed  declining,  and  had  become  stupi- 
fied.  Mr.  Winters  was  passing  along  the  street, 
heard  cries,  looked  up  through  the  window  that 
was  hoisted,  saw  the  boy  whipping  her,  as  much 
as  forty  or  fifty  licks,  while  he  staid.  The  girl 
was  stripped  down  to  the  hips.  The  whip  seem- 
ed to  be  a  cow-hide.     Whenever  she  turned  her 


face  to  him,  he  would  hit  her  across  the  face  either 
v*rith  the  butt  end  or  small  end  of  the  whip  to 
make  her  turn  her  back  round  square  to  the  lash, 
that  he  might  get  a  fair  blow  at  her. 

''  Mr.  Say  had  noticed  several  wounds  on  her 
person,  chiefly  bruises. 

"  Captain  Porter,  keeper  of  the  work-house,  into 
which  iVlilly  had  been  received,  thought  the  inju- 
ries on  her  person  very  bad —  some  of  them  ap- 
peared to  be  burns — some  bruises  or  stripes,  as  of 
a  cow-hide." 

Letter  of  Rev.  John  Rankin,  of  Ripley, 
Ohio,  to  the  Editor  of  the  Philanthropist. 

Ripley,  Feb.  20,  1839. 
"  Some  time  since,  a  member  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  of  Ebenezxr,  Brown  county,  Ohio, 
landed  his  boat  at  a  point  on  the  Mississippi.  He 
saw  some  disturbance  among  the  colored  people 
on  the  bank.  He  stepped  up,  to  see  what  was 
the  matter.  A  black  man  was  stretched  naked 
on  the  ground  ;  his  hands  were  tied  to  a  stake, 
and  one  held  each  foot.  He  was  doomed  to  re- 
ceive fifty  lashes  ;  but  by  the  time  the  overseer 
had  given  him  twenty.five  with  his  great  whip, 
the  blood  was  standing  round  the  wretched  vic- 
tim in  little  puddles.  It  appeared  just  as  if  it  had 
rained  blood. — Another  observer  stepped  up,  and 
advised  to  defer  the  other  twenty-five  to  another 
time,  lest  the  slave  might  die  ;  and  he  was  releas- 
ed, to  receive  the  balance  when  he  should  have 
so  recruited  as  to  be  able  to  bear  it  and  live.  The 
ofTence  was,  coming  one  hour  too  late  to  work." 

Mr.  Rankin,  who  is  a  native  of  Tennessee, 
in  his  letters  on  slavery,  published  fifteen  years 
since,  says  : 

"  A  respectable  gentleman,  who  is  now  a  citi. 
zen  of  Flemingsburg,  Fleming  county,  Kentucky, 
when  in  the  state  of  South  Carolina,  was  invited 
by  a  slaveholder,  to  walk  with  him  and  take  a 
view  of  his  farm.  He  complied  with  the  invita- 
tion thus  given,  and  in  their  walk  they  came  to 
the  place  where  the  slaves  were  at  work,  and 
found  the  overseer  whipping  one  of  them  very 
severely  for  not  keeping  pace  with  his  fellows — 
in  vain  the  poor  fellow  alleged  that  he  was  sick, 
and  could  not  work.  The  master  seemed  to 
think  all  was  well  enough,  hence  he  and  the  gen- 
tleman passed  on.  In  the  space  of  an  hour  tjiey 
returned  by  the  same  way,  and  found  lliat  the 
poor  slave,  who  had  been  whipped  as  they  first 
passed  by  the_  field  of  labor,  was  actually  liead ! 
This  I  have  from  unquestionable  authority." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  a  Member  of  Concress, 
to  the  Editor  of  the  New  York  American,  dated 
Washington,  Feb.  18,  1839.  The  name  of  the 
writer  is  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

"  Three  days  ago,  the  inhabitants  in  the  vicini- 
ty of  the  new  Patent  Building  were  alarmed  by 
an  outcry  in  the  street,  which  proved  to  be  that 
of  a  slave  who  had  just  been  knocked  down  with 
a  brick-bat  by  his  pursuing  master.  Prostrate  on 
the  ground,  with  a  large  gash  in  his  head,  the 
poor  slave  was  receiving  the  blows  of  his  master 
on  one  side,  and  the  kicks  of  his  master's  son  on 
the  other.     His  cries  brought  a  few  individuals  to 


68 


Punishments — Floggings. 


the  spot ;  but  no  one  dared  to  interfere,  save  to 
exclaim — You  will  kill  him — which  was  met  by 
the  response,  "  He  is  mine,  and  I  have  a  riglit  to 
do  what  I  j)Iease  with  Jiim."  The  heart-rending 
scene  was  closid  from  public  view  by  dragging 
the  poor  bruised  and  wounded  slave  from  the  pub- 
lic street  into  his  master's  stable.  What  followed 
is  not  known.  The  outcries  were  heard  bj^  mem- 
bers of  Congress  and  others  at  the  distance  of 
near  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  scene. 

"  And  now,  perhaps,  you  will  ask,  is  not  the 
city  aroused  by  this  flagrant  cruelty  and  breach 
of  the  peace  ?  I  answer — not  at  all.  Every 
thing  is  quiet.  If  the  occurrence  is  mentioned  at 
all,  it  is  spoken  of  in  whispers." 

From  the  Mobile  Examiner,  August  1,  1837. 
"police  report — mayor's  office. 
Saturday  morning ,  August  12,  1837. 

"  His  Honor  the  Mayor  presiding. 

"  Mr.  Miller,  of  the  foundry,  brouglit  to  the 
ofFice  this  morning  a  small  negro  girl  aged  about 
eight  or  ten  years,  whom  he  had  taken  into  his 
house  some  time  during  the  previous  night.  She 
had  crawled  under  the  window  of  his  bed  room  to 
screen  herself  from  the  night  air,  and  to  tind  a 
warmer  shelter  than  the  open  canopy  of  heaven 
afforded.  Of  all  objects  of  pity  that  have  lately 
come  to  our  view,  this  poor  little  girl  most  needs 
the  protection  of  authority,  and  the  sympathies 
of  the  charitable.  From  the  cruelty  of  her  mas- 
ter and  mistress,  she  has  been  whipped,  worked 
and  .starved,  until  she  is  now  a  breathing  skele- 
ton, hardly  able  to  stand  upon  her  feet. 

''The  back  of  the  poor  little  sufferer,  (which  we 
ourselves  saw.)  was  actually  cut  into  strings,  and 
so  perfectly  was  the  flesh  worn  from  her  limbs, 
by  the  wretched  treatment  she  had  received,  that 
every  joint  showed  distinctly  its  crevices  and  pro- 
tuberances  through  the  skin.  Her  little  lips  clung 
closely  over  her  teeth — her  cheeks  were  sunken 
and  her  head  narrowed,  and  when  her  eves  were 
closed,  the  lids  resembled  film  more  than  flesh  or 
skin. 

"We  would  desire  of  our  northern  friends  such 
as  choose  to  publish  to  the  world  their  own  ver- 
sion of  the  case  wc  have  related,  not  to  forget  to 
add,  in  conclusion,  that  the  owner  of  this  little 
girl  is  a  foreigner,  speaks  against  slavery  as  an 
institution,  and  reads  his  Bible  to  his  wife,  with 
the  view  of  finding  proofs  for  his  opinions." 

Rev.  William  Scales,  of  Lyndon,  Vermont, 
gives  the  following  testimony  in  a  recent  letter  : 

"  I  had  a  class-mate  at  the  Andover  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  who  spent  a  season  at  the  south, 
— in  (jeorgia,  I  think — who  related  the  following 
fact  in  an  address  before  the  Seminary.  It  oeea- 
fcioncd  very  deep  sensation  on  the  part  of  op- 
ponents. Tiic  gentleman  was  Mr.  Julius  C.  An- 
thony, of  Taunton,  Mass.  He  graduated  at  the 
Seminary  in  1835.  I  do  not  know  where  he  is 
now  settled.  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  fact,  as  he 
was  an  eye-witness  of  it.  The  man  with  whom 
he  resided  had  a  very  athletic  slave — a  valuable 
fellow — a  blacksmith.  On  a  certain  day  a  small 
strap  of  leatlier  was  missing.  The  man's  little 
son  accused  this  slave  of  stealing  it.  He  denied  the 
charge,  while  the  boy  most  confidently  asserted  it. 
The    slave  was   brouglit  out   into  the  yard  and 


bound — his  hands  below  his  knees,  and  a  stick 
crossing  his  knees,  so  that  he  would  lie  upon 
either  side  in  form  of  the  letter  S.  One  of  the 
overseers  laid  on  fifty  lashes — he  still  denied  the 
theft — was  turned  over  and  fifty  more  put  on. 
Sometimes  the  master  and  sometimes  the  over. 
seers  whipping — as  they  relieved  each  other  to 
take  breath.  Then  he  was  for  a  time  left  to 
himself,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  received 
FOUR  HUNDRED  L.\sHES — Still  denying  the  charo^c. 
Next  mornhig  Mr.  Anthony  walked  out — the  sun 
was  just  rising — he  saw  the  man  greatly  enfee- 
bled, leaning  against  a  stump.  It  was  time  to  go 
to  work — he  attempted  to  rise,  but  fell  back- 
again  attempted,  and  again  fell  back — still  mak- 
ing the  attempt,  and  still  falling  back,  Mr.  An- 
thony thought,  nearly  twenty  times  before  he 
succeeded  in  standing — he  then  staggered  off  to 
his  shop.  In  course  of  the  morning  Mr.  A.  went 
to  the  door  and  looked  in.  Two  overseers  were 
standing  hj.  The  slave  was  feverish  and  sick — 
his  skin  and  mouth  dry  and  parched.  He  was 
very  thirsty.  One  of  the  overseers,  while  Mr.  A. 
was  looking  at  him,  inquired  of  the  other  whether 
it  were  not  best  to  give  him  a  little  water.  '  No  . 
damn  him,  he  will  do  well  enough,'  was  the  re. 
ply  from  the  other  overseer.  This  was  all  the 
relief  gained  by  the  poor  slave.  A  few  days  after, 
the  slaveholder's  son  confessed  that  he  stole  the 
strap  himself." 

Rev.  D.  C.  Eastman,  a  minister  of  the  Metho- 
dist  Episcopal  church  at  Bloomingburg,  Fayette 
county,  Ohio,  has  just  forwarded  a  letter,  from 
which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"  George  Roebuck,  an  old  and  respectable 
farmer,  near  Bloomingburg,  Fayette  county, 
Ohio,  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  says,  that  almost  forty.three  years  ago, 
he  saw  in  Bath  count3',  Virginia,  a  slave  girl 
with  a  sore  between  the  shoulders  of  the  size  and 
shape  of  a  smoothing  iron.  The  girl  w-as  '  owned  ' 
by  one  M'Neil.  A  slaveholder  who  boarded  at 
M'Neil's  stated  that  Mrs.  M'Neil  had  placed  the 
aforesaid  iron  when  hot,  between  the  girl's  shoul- 
ders,  and  produced  the  sore. 

"  Roebuck  was  once  at  this  M'Neil's  father's, 
and  whilst  the  old  man  was  at  morning  prayer, 
he  heard  the  son  plying  the  whip  upon  a  slave  out 
of  doors. 

"Eli  West,  of  Concord  township,  Fayette 
county,  Ohio,  formerly  of  North  Carolina,  a 
farmer  and  an  exhorter  in  the  Methodist  Pro- 
testant church,  says,  that  many  years  since  he 
went  to  live  with  an  uncle  who  owned  about  fifty 
negroes.  Soon  after  his  amval,  his  uncle  ordered 
his  waiting  boy,  who  was  naked,  to  be  tied — his 
hands  to  ahorse  rack,  and  his  feet  togethrr,  with 
a  rail  passed  between  his  legs,  and  held  down  by 
a  person  at  each  end.  In  this  position  he  was 
whipped,  from  neck  to  feet,  till  covered  with 
blood  ;  after  which  he  was  salted. 

"  His  uncle's  slaves  received  one  quart  of  corn 
each  day,  and  that  only,  and  were  allowed  one 
hour  each  day  to  cook  and  cat  it.  They  had  no 
meat  but  once  in  the  year.  Such  was  the  general 
usage  in  that  country. 

"  West,  after  this,  lived  one  year  with  Esquire 
Starky   and  mother.     They    had    two   hundred 


Punishments — Floggings. 


69 


slaves,  who  received  the  usual  treatment  of  starv- 
ation, nakedness,  and  the  cowhide.  They  had  one 
lil'oly  negro  woman  who  bore  no  children.  For 
til  s  neglect,  her  mistress  had  her  back  made  naked 
and  a  severe  whipping  inflicted.  But  as  she  con- 
tinued barren,  she  was  sold  to  the  '  negro  buyers.' 

"Thomas  Larrimer,  a  deacon  in  the  Presby. 
tcrian  church  at  Bloomingburg,  Fayette  county, 
Ohio,  and  a  respectable  farmer,  says,  that  in  April, 
1837,  as  he  was  going  down  the  Mississippi  river, 
about  fifty  miles  below  Natchez,  he  saw  ahead, 
on  the  left  side  of  the  river,  a  colored  person  tied 
to  a  post,  and  a  man  with  a  driver's  whip,  the 
lash  about  eight  or  ten  feet  long.  With  this  the 
man  commenced,  with  much  deliberation,  to  whip, 
with  much  apparent  force,  and  continued  till  he 
got  out  of  sight. 

"  When  coming  up  the  river  forty  or  fifty 
miles  below  Vicksburg,  a  Judge  Owens  came  on 
board  the  steamboat.  He  was  owner  of  a  cotton 
plantation  below  tliere,  and  on  being  told  of  the 
above  whipping,  he  said  that  slaves  were  often 
whipped  to  death  for  great  offences,  such  as  steal- 
ing, &c. — but  that  when  death  followed,  the 
overseers  were  generally  severely  reproved  ! 

"About  the  same  time,  he  spent  a  night  at  Mr. 
Casey's,  three  miles  from  Columbia,  South  Caro- 
lina. Whilst  there  they  heard  liim  giving  orders 
as  to  what  was  to  be  done,  and  amongst  other 
things,  '  Tliat  nigger  must  be  buried.'  On  in- 
quiry, he  learnt  that  a  gentleman  traveling  with 
a  servant,  had  a  short  time  previous  called  there, 
and  said  his  servant  had  just  been  taken  ill,  and 
he  shoidd  be  under  the  necessity  of  leaving  him. 
He  did  so.  The  slave  became  worse,  and  Casey 
called  in  a  physician,  who  pronounced  it  an  old 
case,  and  said  that  he  must  shortly  die.  The 
slave  said,  if  that  was  the  case  he  would  now  tell 
the  truth.  He  had  been  attacked,  a  long  time 
since,  with  a  difficulty  in  the  side — his  master 
swore  he  would  '  have  his  own  out  of  him,'  and 
started  off  to  sell  him,  with  a  threat  to  kill  him 
if  he  told  he  had  been  sick,  more  than  a  few 
days.  They  saw  them  making  a  rough  plank 
box  to  bury  him  in. 

"  fn  March,  1833,  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles 
south  of  Columbia,  on  the  great  road  through 
Sumpterville  district,  they  saw  a  large  company 
of  female  slaves  carrying  rails  and  building  fence. 
Three  of  them  were  far  advanced  in  pregnancy. 

"  In  the  month  of  January,  1838,  he  put  up  with 
a  drove  of  mules  and  horses,  at  one  Adams',  on 
the  Drovers'  road,  near  the  south  border  of  Ken- 
tucky. His  son-in-law,  who  had  lived  in  the 
south,  was  there.  In  conversation  about  picking 
cotton,  he  said,  '  some  hands  cannot  get  the 
sleight  of  it.  I  have  a  girl  who  to-day  has  done 
as  good  a  day's  work  at  grubbing  as  any  man, 
but  I  could  not  make  her  a  hand  at  cotton-pick, 
ing.  I  whipped  her,  and  if  I  did  it  once  I  did  it 
five  hundred  times,  but  I  found  she  could  not ; 
so  I  put  lier  to  carrying  rails  with  the  men. 
After  a  few  days  I  found  her  shoulders  were  so 
raio  that  every  rail  was  Moody  as  she  laid  it  down. 
I  asked  her  if  she  would  not  rather  pick  cotton 
than  carry  rails.  '  No,'  said  she,  '  I  don't  get 
whipped  now.' " 

William  A.  Ustick,  an  elder  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian church  at  Bloomingburg,  and  Mr.  G.  S.  Ful- 
lerton,  a    merchant    and  member  of  the   same 


church,  were  with  Deacon  Larrimer  on  this  jour- 
ney, and  are  witnesses  to  the  preceding  facts. 

Mr.  Samuel  Hall,  a  teacher  in  Marietta  Col- 
lege, Ohio,  and  formerly  secretary  of  the  Coloni- 
zation society  in  that  village,  has  recently 
communicated  the  facts  which  follow.  We 
quote  from  his  letter. 

"  Tiie  following  horrid  flagellation  was  wit- 
nessed in  part,  till  his  soul  was  sick,  by  Ma. 
Gliddex,  an  inhabitant  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  who 
went  down  the  Mississippi  river,  with  a  boat 
load  of  produce  in  the  autumn  of  1837  ;  it  took 
place  at  what  is  called  '  Matthews'  or  '  Ma- 
tlicses  Bend'  in  December,  1837.  Mr.  G.  is 
worthy  of  credit. 

"  A  negro  was  tied  up,  and  flogged  until  the 
blood  ran  down  and  filled  his  shoes,  so  that  when 
he  raised  cither  foot  and  set  it  down  again,  the 
blood  would  run  over  their  tops.  I  could  not 
look  on  any  longer,  hut  turned  away  in  horror  ; 
tlie  whipping  was  continued  to  the  number  of 
500  lashes,  as  I  understood  ;  a  quart  of  spirits  of 
turpentine  was  then  applied  to  his  lacerated 
body.  The  same  negro  came  down  to  my  boat, 
to  get  some  apples,  and  was  so  weak  from  his 
wounds  and  loss  of  blood,  that  he  could  not  get 
up  the  bank,  but  fell  to  the  ground.  The  crime 
for  which  the  negro  was  whipped,  was  that  of 
telling  the  other  negroes,  that  the  overseer  had 
lain  with  his  wifey 

Mr.  Hall  adds  :— 

"The  following  statement  is  made  by  a 
young  man  from  Western  Virginia.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  a 
student  in  Marietta  College.  All  that  prevents 
the  introduction  of  his  name,  is  the  peril  to  his 
life,  which  would  probably  be  the  consequence, 
on  his  return  to  Virginia.  His  character  for  in. 
tegrity  and  veracity  is  above  suspicion. 

'  On  the  night  of  the  great  meteoric  shower,  in 
Nov.  1833.  I  was  at  Remley's  tavern,  12  miles 
west  of  Lcwisburg,  Greenbrier  Co.,  Virginia.  A 
drove  of  50  or  GO  negroes  stopped  at  the  same 
place  that  night.  They  usually  '  camp  out," 
but  as  it  was  excessively  muddy,  they  were  per- 
mitted to  come  into  the  house.  So  far  as  my 
knowledge  extends,  '  droves,'  on  their  way  to 
the  south,  eat  but  twice  a  day,  early  in  the  morn- 
ing and  at  night.  Their  supper  was  a  compound 
of  '  potatoes  and  meal,'  and  was,  without  excep- 
tion, the  dirtiest,  blackest  looking  mess  I  ever  saw. 
I  remarked  at  the  time  that  the  food  was  not  as 
clean,  in  appearance,  as  that  which  was  given  to 
a  drove  of  hogs^  at  the  same  place  the  night 
previous.  Such  as  it  was,  however,  a  black  wo- 
man brought  it  on  her  head,  in  a  tray  or  trough 
two  and  a  half  feet  long,  where  the  men  and 
women  were  promiscuously  herded.  The  slaves 
rushed  up  and  seized  it  from  the  trough  in  hand- 
fulls,  before  the  woman  could  take  itoffher  head. 
They  jumped  at  it  as  if  half-famished. 

'  They  slept  on  the  floor  of  the  room  which 
thej'  were  permitted  to  occupy,  lying  in  every 
form  imaginable,  males  and  females,  promiscu. 
ously.  They  were  so  thick  on  the  floor,  that  m 
passing  through  the  room  it  was  necessary  to 
step  over  them. 

'  There  were  three  drivers,  one  of  whom  staid 


70 


Punishments — Floggings. 


m  the  room  to  watch  the  drove,  and  the  other 
two  slept  in  an  adjoining  room.  Each  of  the 
latter  took  a  female  from  the  drove  to  lodge  with 
him,  as  is  the  common  practice  of  the  drivers 
generally.  There  is  no  doubt  about  this  particu- 
lar instance,  fur  they  were  seen  together.  The 
mud  was  so  thick  on  the  floor  where  this  drove 
slept,  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  a  shovel,  the 
next  morning,  and  clear  it  out.  Six  or  eight  in 
tliis  drove  were  chained  ;  all  were  for  the  south. 
'  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year.  5-aw  a 
drove  of  upwards  of  a  hundred,  between  40  and 
50  of  them  were  fastened  to  one  chain,  the  links 
being  made  of  iron  rods,  as  thick  in  diameter  as  a 
man's  little  finger.  This  drove  was  bound  west- 
ward to  the  Ohio  river,  to  be  shipped  to  the 
south.  I  have  seen  many  droves,  and  more  or 
less  in  each,  almost  without  exception,  were 
chained.  I  never  saw  but  one  drove,  that  went 
on  their  way  making  merry.  In  that  one  they 
were  blowing  horns,  singing,  &:c.,,  and  appear- 
ed as  if  thej'  had  been  drinking  whisky. 

'  They  generally  appear  extremely  dejected.  I 
have  seen  in  tlie  course  of  five  years,  on  the  road 
near  where  I  reside,  12  or  15  droves  at  least,  pas- 
sing to  the  south.  They  would  average  40  in 
each  drove.  Near  the  first  of  January,  1834,  I 
started  about  sunrise  to  go  to  Lewisburg.  It 
was  a  bitter  cold  morning.  I  met  a  drove  of 
negroes,  30  or  40  in  number,  remarkably  ragged 
and  destitute  of  clothing.  One  little  boy  partic- 
ularly excited  my  sympathy.  He  was  some  dis- 
tance behind  the  others,  not  being  able  to  keep 
up  with  the  rest.  Altliougli  he  was  shivering 
with  cold  ind  crying,  the  driver  was  pushing  him 
Up  in  a  trot  to  overtake  the  main  gang.  All  of 
them  looked  as  if  they  were  half-frozen.  There 
was  one  remarkable  instance  of  tyranny,  ex- 
hibited by  a  boy,  not  more  than  eight  years  old, 
that  came  under  my  observation,  in  a  family  by 
the  name  of  D — n,  six  miles  from  Lewisburg. 
This  youngster  would  swear  at  the  slaves,  and 
exert  all  the  strength  he  possessed,  to  flog  or 
beat  them,  with  whatever  instrument  or  weapon 
he  could  lay  hands  on,  provided  they  did  not 
obey  him  instanter.  He  was  encouraged  in  this 
by  his  father,  the  master  of  the  slaves.  The 
slaves  often  fled  from  this  young  tyrant  in  terror." 

Mr.  Hall  adds  :— 

"  The  following  extract  is  from  a  letter, 
to  a  student  in  Marietta  College,  by  his  friend 
in  Alabama.  With  the  writer,  Mr.  Isaac 
Knapp,  I  am  perfectly  acquainted.  He  was  a 
student  in  the  above  College,  for  the  space  of  one 
year,  before  going  to  Alabama,  was  formerly  a 
resident  of  Dummerston,  Vt.  He  is  a  professor  of 
religion  and  as  wortiiy  of  belief  as  any  member 
of  the  community.  Mr.  K.  has  returned  from  the 
South,  and  is  now  a  member  of  the  same  college. 

'  In  Jan.  (1S38)  a  negro  of  a  widow  Phillips, 
ranaway,  was  taken  up,  and  confined  in  Pulaski 
jail.  One  Gibbs,  overseer  for  Mrs.  P.,  mounted 
on  horseback,  took  him  from  eonfinemeni,  com- 
pelled him  to  run  back  to  Elklon,  a  distance  of 
fifteen  miles,  whip|iing  him  all  the  way.  When 
he  reached  home,  the  negro  exhausted  and  worn 
out,  exclaimed  '  you  have  broke  my  heart,'  i.  e. 
you  have  killed  me.  For  this,  Gibbs  flew  into 
a  violent  passion,  tied   the  negro  to  a  stake,  and, 


in  the  language  of  a  witness, '  cut  his  back  to 
mince-meat.^  But  the  fiend  was  not  satisfied  with 
this.  He  burnt  his  legs  to  a  blister,  with  hot  em- 
bers, and  then  chained  him  naked,  in  the  open 
air,  weary  with  running,  weak  from  the  loss  of 
blood,  and  smarting  from  his  burns.  It  was  a 
cold  night — and  in  the  morning  the  negro  was 
dead.  Yet  this  monster  escaped  without  even 
the  shadoto  of  a  trial.  '  The  negro,'  said  the 
doctor,  '  died,  by — he  knew  not  what  ;  any  how, 
Gibbs  did  not  kill  him.'*  A  short  time  since, 
(the  letter  is  dated,  April,  1838,)  '  Gibbs  whip- 
ped another  negro  unmercifully  because  the 
horse,  with  which  he  was  ploughing,  broke  the 
reins  and  ran.  He  then  raised  his  whip  against 
Mr.  Bowers,  (son  of  Mrs.  P.)  who  shot  him. 
Since  I  came  here,'  (a  period  of  about  sis 
months,)  '  there  have  been  eight  white  men 
and  two  negroes  killed,    within  30  miles  of  me.' 

*  Mr.  Knapp,  gives  iiil'  Fnme  furtlitr  verbal  particulars 
about  this  attair.  He  says  that  his  Inforniaiit  saw  the  ncfrro 
dfad  the  next  morning,"  that  his  le?s  were  Wistcrt'd,  iiiitl 
tliat  the  negroes  affirmed  that  Gibbs  compelled  thein  to 
tluovv  embers  upon  hun.  But  Gibbs  denied  it,  and  said 
the  blistering  was  the  efiect  of  frost,  as  the  negro  was 
much  exposed  to  it  before  being  taken  up.  Mr.  Bowers,  a 
son  of  Mrs.  Phillips  by  a  former  husband,  attempted  to 
have  Gibbs  brought  to  .justice,  but  his  mother  justiiiid 
Gibbs,  and  nothing  was  therefore  done  about  it.  The  af- 
fair took  place  in  Upper  Elkton,  Tennessee,  near  the  Ala- 
bama line. 

"  The  following  is  from  Mr.  Knapp's  own  hps, 
taken  down  a  day  or  two  since. 

'  Mr.  Buster,  with  whom  I  boarded,  in  Lime- 
stone Co.,  Ala.,  related  to  me  the  following  inci- 
dent :  '  George,  a  slave  belonging  to  one  of  the 
estates  in  my  neigliborhood,  was  lurking  about 
my  residence  without  a  pass.  We  were  making 
preparations  to  give  him  a  flogging,  but  he  es- 
caped from  us.  Not  long  afterwards,  meeting 
a  patrol  which  had  just  taken  a  negro  in  custody 
without  a  pass,  I  inquired.  Who  have  you  there  ?  on 
learning  that  it  was  Gemge,  well,  I  rejoined,  there 
is  a  small  matter  between  him  and  myself,  that 
needs  adjustment,  so  give  me  the  raw  hide,  which 
I  accordingly  took,  and  laid  60  strokes  on  his 
back,  to  the  utmost  of  my  strength.'  I  was 
speaking  of  this  barbarity,  afterwards,  to  Mr. 
Bradley,  an  overseer  of  the  liev.  Mr.  Donncll, 
who  lives  in  the  vicinity  of  Moresville,  Ala., 
'  Oh,'  replied  he,  '  we  consider  that  a  very  light 
whipping  here.'  Mr.  Bradley  is  a  professor  of 
religion,  and  is  esteemed  in  that  vicinity  a  very 
pious,  exemplary  Christian.'  " 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Rev.  C.  Stewart 
Rensiiaw,  of  Quincy,  Illinois,  dated  Jan.  1,  1839. 
"  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  disclose  the  name 
of  the  brother  who  has  furnished  the  following 
facts.  He  is  highly  esteemed  as  a  man  of  scru- 
pulous veracity.  I  will  confirm  my  own  testimo- 
ny by  the  certificate  of  Judge  Snow  and  Mr. 
Keyes,  two  of  the  oldest  and  most  respectable 
settlers  in  Quincy. 

Quincy,  Dec.  20,  ]83,'<. 
"  De.ir  Sir, — We  have  been  long  acquainted  with  the 
Christian  brother  who  has  named  to  you  some  facts  that 
fell  under  his  observation  whilst  a  resident  of  slave  states. 
He  is  a  member  of  a  Christian  cluirch,  in  good  standing  ,- 
and  is  a  man  of  strict  uitegrity  of  character. 

Henry  H.  Snow, 
WiLLARD  Kbyks. 
Rev.  C.  Stewart  Rcnshaw." 


Punishments — Floggings . 


71 


*'  My  informant  spent  thirty  years  of  his  life  in 
Kentucky  and  Missouri.  Whilst  in  Kentucky  he 
resided  in  Hardin  co.'  I  noted  down  his  testimo- 
ny ver}'  nearly  in  his  own  words,  which  will  ac- 
count for  their  evidence-like  form.  On  the  gen- 
eral condition  of  the  slaves  in  Kentucky,  through 
Hardin  co.,  he  said,  their  houses  were  very  un- 
comfortable, generally  without  floors,  other  than 
the  earth :  many  had  puncheon  floors,  but  he 
never  remembers  to  have  seen  a  plank  floor.  In 
regard  to  clothing  they  were  very  badly  off.  In 
summer  they  cared  little  for  thing  ;  but  in  win- 
ter they  almost  froze.  Their  rags  might  hide 
their  nakedness  from  the  sun  in  summer,  but 
would  not  protect  thera  from  the  cold  in  winter. 
Their  bed-clothes  were  tattered  rags,  thrown  into  a 
corner  by  day,  and  drawn  before  the  fire  by  night. 
'  The  only  thing,'  said  he,  '  to  which  I  can  com- 
pare them,  in  winter,  is  stock  without  a  shelter.' 

"  He  made  the  following  comparison  between  the 
condition  of  slaves  in  Kentucky  and  Missouri.  So 
far  as  he  was  able  to-  compare  them,  he  said,  that 
in  Missouri  the  slaves  had  better  quarters — but 
arc  not  so  well  clad,  and  are  more  severely  pun- 
ished than  in  Kentuck}'.  In  both  states,  the 
slaves  are  huddled  together,  without  distinction 
of  sex,  into  the  same  quarter,  till  it  is  filled,  then 
another  is  built ;  often  two  or  three  families  in  a 
log  hovel,  twelve  feet  square. 

"  It  is  proper  to  state,  that  the  sphere  of  my  in- 
formant's observation  was  mamly  in  the  region 
of  Hardin  co.,  Kentucky,  and  the  eastern  part  of 
Missouri,  and  not  through  those  states  generally. 

'•Whilst  at  St.  Louis,  a  number  of  years  ago,  as 
he  was  going  to  work  with  Mr.  Henry  Males,  and 
another  carpenter,  they  heard  groans  from  a  barn 
by  the  road-side  :  they  stopped,  and  looking 
through  the  cracks  of  the  barn,  saw  a  negro 
bound  hand  and  foot  to  a  post,  so  that  his  toes 
just  touched  the  ground  ;  and  his  master.  Captain 
Thorpe,  was  inflicting  punishment ;  he  had  whip- 
ped him  till  exliausted, — rested  himself,  and  re- 
tm-ned  again  to  the  punishment.  The  wretched 
sufferer  was  in  a  most  pitiable  condition,  and  the 
warm  blood  and  dry  dust  of  the  barn  had  formed 
a  mortar  up  to  his  instep.  Mr  Males  jumped  the 
fence,  and  remonstrated  so  etfectually  with  Capt. 
Thorpe,  that  he  ceased  the  punishment.  It  was 
six  weeks  before  that  slave  could  put  on  his  shirt ! 

"John  Mackey,  a  rich  slaveholder,  lived  near 
Clarksville,  Pike  co.,  Missom-i,  some  years  since. 
He  whipped  his  slave  Billy,  a  boy  fourteen  years 
old,  till  he  was  sick  and  stupid  ;  he  then  sent  him 
home.  Then,  for  his  stupidity,  whipped  him 
again,  and  fractmxd  his  skull  with  an  axe-helve. 
He  buried  him  away  in  the  woods  ;  dark  words 
were  whispered,  and  the  body  was  disinterred.  A 
coroner's  inquest  was  held,  and  Mr.  R.  Anderson, 
the  coroner,  brought  in  a  verdict  of  death  from 
fractured  skull,  occasioned  by  blows  from  an  axe- 
handle,  inflicted  by  John  Mackey.  The  case  was 
brought  into  court,  but  Mackey  was  rich,  and 
his  murdered  victim  was  his  slave  ;  after  ex- 
pending about  ^500  he  walked  free. 

"  One  Mrs.  Mann,  living  near ,  in co., 

Missouri,  was  known  to  be  very  cruel  to  her 
slaves.  She  had  a  bench  made  purposely  to  whip 
them  upon  ;  and  what  she  called  her  "  six  pound 
paddle,"  an  instrument  of  prodigious  torture, 
bored  through  with  holes ;  this  she  would  wield  i 


with  both  hands  as  she  stood  over  her  prostrate 
victim. 

"  She  thus  punished  a  hired  slave  woman  named 
Fanny,  belonging  to  Mr.  Charles  Trabue,  who 
lives  near  Palmyra,  Marion  co.,  Missouri ;  on  the 
morning  after  the  punishment  Fanny  was  a 
corpse  ;  she  was  silently  and  quickly  buried,  but 
rumor  was. not  so  easily  stopped.  "\Ir.  Trabue 
heard  of  it,  and  commenced  suit  for  his  property. 
The  murdered  slave  was  disinterred,  and  an  in. 
quest  held  ;  her  back  was  a  mass  of  jellied  mus 
cle  ;  and  the  coroner  brought  in  a  verdict  of  death 
by  the  '  six  pound  paddle.'  Mrs.  Mann  fled  for 
a  few  months,  but  returned  again,  and  her  friends 
found  means  to  protract  the  suit. 

"This  same  Mrs.  Mann  had  another  hired  slave 
woman  living  with  her,  called  Patterson's  Fanny, 
she  belonged  to  a  Mr.  Patterson ;  she  had  a 
young  babe  with  her,  just  beginning  to  creep. 
One  day,  after  washing,  whilst  a  tub  of  rinsing 
water  yet  stood  in  the  kitchen,  Mrs.  Mann  came 
out  in  haste,  and  sent  Fanny  to  do  something  out 
of  doors.  Fanny  tried  to  beg  off" — she  was  afraid 
to  leave  her  babe,  lest  it  should  creep  to  the  tub 
and  get  hurt — Mrs.  M.  said  she  would  watch  the 
babe,  and  sent  her  off".  She  went  with  nmch  re. 
luctance,  and  heard  the  child  struggle  as  she 
went  out  the  door.  Fearing  lest  Mrs.  M.  should 
leave  the  babe  alone,  she  watched  the  room,  and 
soon  saw  her  pass  out  of  the  opposite  door.  Im- 
mediately Fanny  hurried  in,  and  looked  around 
for  her  babe,  she  could  not  see  it,  she  looked  at 
the  tub — there  her  babe  was  floating,  a  strangled 
corpse.  The  poor  woman  gave  a  dreadful  scream  ; 
and  Mrs.  M.  rushed  into  the  room,  with  her 
hands  raised,  and  exclaimed,  '  Heavens,  Fanny  ! 
have  you  drowned  your  child  ?'  It  was  vain 
for  the  poor  bereaved  one  to  attempt  to  vindicate 
herself:  in  vain  she  attempted  to  convince  them 
that  the  babe  had  not  been  alone  a  moment,  and 
could  not  have  drowned  itself;  and  that  she  had 
not  been  in  the  house  a  moment,  before  she  scream- 
ed at  discovering  her  drowned  babe.  All  was 
false  !  Mrs.  Mann  declared  it  was  all  pretence — 
that  Fanny  had  drowned  her  own  babe,  and  now 
wanted  to  lay  the  blame  upon  her !  and  Mrs. 
Mann  was  a  white  woman — of  course  her  word 
was  more  valuable  than  the  oaths  of  all  the  slaves 
of  Missouri.  No  evidence  but  that  of  slaves  could 
be  obtained,  or  Mr.  Patterson  would  have  prose- 
cuted for  his  '  loss  of  property.'  As  it  was,  every 
one  believed  Mrs.  M.  guilty,  though  the  affair 
was  soon  hushed  up." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Col.  Thomas  Rogers, 
a  native  of  Kentucky,  now  an  elder  in  the  Pres. 
byterian  Church  at  New  Petersburg,  Highland 
CO.,  Ohio. 

"  When  a  boy,  in  Bourbon  co.,  Kentucky,  my 
father  lived  near  a  slaveholder  of  the  name  of 
Clay,  who  had  a  large  number  of  slaves  ;  I  remem- 
ber being  often  at  their  quarters  ;  not  one  of  their 
shanties,  or  hovels,  had  any  floor  but  the  earth. 
Their  clothing  was  truly  neither  fit  for  covering 
nor  decency.  We  could  distinctly,  of  a  still  morn- 
ing, hear  this  man  whipping  his  blacks,  and  hear 
their  screams  from  my  father's  farm :  this  could 
be  heard  almort  any  still  morning  about  the  dawn 
of  day.     It  was  said  to  be  his  usual  custom  to  re. 


72 


Punishments — Tortures. 


pair,  about  the  break  of  day,  to  their  cabin  doors, 
and,  as  the  blacks  passed  out,  to  give  them  as 
many  strokes  of  his  cowskin  as  opportunity  af- 
forded ;  and  he  would  proceed  in  this  manner 
from  cabin  to  cabin  until  thcv  were  all  out.  Occa- 
sionally some  of  his  slaves  would  abscond,  and 
upon  being  retaken  they  were  punished  severely ; 
and  some  of  them,  it  is  believed,  died  in  conse- 
(juence  of  the  cruelty  of  their  usage.  I  saw  one 
of  this  man's  slaves,  about  seventeen  years  old, 
wearing  a  collar,  with  long  iron  horns  extending 
from  his  shoulders  far  above  his  head. 

"  In  the  winter  of  1828-29  I  traveled  through 
part  of  the  states  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  to 
Baltimore.  At  Frost  Town,  on  the  national  road, 
I  put  up  for  the  night.  Soon  after,  there  came  in 
a  slaver  with  his  drove  of  slaves  ;  among  them 
were  two  young  men,  chained  together.  The  bar 
room  was  assigned  to  them  for  their  place  of 
lodging — those  in  chains  were  guarded  when  they 
had  to  go  out.  I  asked  the  '  owner'  why  he  kept 
these  men  chained ;  he  replied,  that  they  were 
stout  young  fellows,  and  should  they  rebel,  he  and 
his  son  would  not  be  able  to  manage  them.  I 
then  left  the  room,  and  shortly  after  heard  a 
scream,  and  when  the  landlady  inquired  the  cause, 
the  slaver  coolly  told  her  not  to  trouble  herself,  he 
was  only  chastising  one  of  his  women.  It  appear- 
ed that  three  days  previously  her  child  had  died 
on  the  road,  and  been  thrown  into  a  hole  or  cre- 
vice in  the  mountain,  and  a  few  stones  thrown 
over  it ;  and  the  mother  weeping  for  her  child 
was  chastised  by  her  master,  and  told  by  him, 
she  '  should  have  something  to  cry  for.'  The 
name  of  this  man  I  can  give  if  called  for. 

"  When  engaged  in  this  journey  I  spent  about 
one  month  with  my  relations  in  Virginia.  It  be- 
ing shortly  after  new  year,  the  time  of  hiring  was 
over ;  but  I  saw  the  pounds,  and  the  scaffolds 
which  remained  of  the  pounds,  in  which  the  slaves 
had  been  penned  up." 

Mr.  George  W.  Westgate,  of  Quincy,  Illi- 
nois, who  lived  in  the  southwestern  slave  states  a 
number  of  years,  has  furnished  the  following  state- 
ment. 

"The  great  mass  of  the  slaves  are  under  drivers 
and  overseers.  I  never  saw  an  overseer  without 
a  whip  ;  the  whip  usually  carried  is  a  short  loaded 


stock,  with  a  heavy  lash  from  five  to  six  feet  lonf . 
When  they  whip  a  slave  they  make  him  pull  oft 
his  shirt,  if  he  has  one,  then  niake  him  lie  down 
on  his  face,  and  taking  their  stand  at  the  length 
of  the  lash,  they  inflict  the  punishment.  Whip- 
pings are  so  universal  that  a  negro  that  has  not 
been  whipped  is  talked  of  in  all  the  region  as  a 
wonder.  By  whipping  I  do  not  mean  a  few  lashes 
across  the  shoulders,  but  a  set  flogging,  and  gen- 
erally lying  down. 

"  On  sugar  plantations  generally,  and  on  some 
cotton  plantations,  they  have  negro  drivers,  who 
are  in  such  a  degree  responsible  for  their  gang, 
that  if  they  are  at  fault,  the  driver  is  whipped. 
The  result  is,  the  gang  are  constantly  driven  by 
him  to  the  extent  of  the  influence  of  the  lash  ;  and 
it  is  uniformly  the  case  that  gangs  dread  a  negro 
driver  more  than  a  white  overseer. 

"  I  spent  a  winter  on  widow  Calvert's  planta- 
tion, near  Rodney,  Mississippi,  but  was  not  in  a 
situation  to  sec  extraordinary  punishments.  Bel- 
lows,  the  o\'crseer,  for  a  trifling  dSlnce,  took  one 
of  the  slaves,  stripped  him,  and  with  a  piece  of 
burning  wood  applied  to  his  posteriors,  burned 
him  cruelly ;  while  the  poor  wretch  screamed  in 
the  greatest  agony.  The  principal  preparation 
for  punishment  that  Bellows  had,  was  single  hand- 
cufl's  made  of  iron,  with  chains,  by  which  the  of- 
fender could  be  chained  to  four  stakes  on  the 
ground.  These  are  very  common  in  all  the  lower 
country.  I  noticed  one  slave  on  widow  Calvert's 
plantation,  who  was  whipped  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty  lashes  every  fortnight  during  the  whole  win- 
ter.  I'he  expression  '  whipped  to  death,'  as  ap- 
plied to  slaves,  is  common  at  the  south. 

"  Several  years  ago  I  was  going  below  New-Or. 
leans,  in  what  is  called  the  Plaqucmine  coimtry, 
and  a  planter  sent  down  in  my  boat  a  runaway  he 
had  found  in  New-Orleans,  to  his  plantation  at 
Orange  5  Points.  As  we  came  near  the  Points  he 
told  me,  with  deep  feeling,  that  he  expected  to  be 
whipped  almost  to  death  ;  pointing  to  a  grave, 
yard,  he  said,  '  There  lie  five  who  were  whipped 
to  death.'  Overseers  generally  keep  some  of  the 
women  on  the  plantation;  I  scarce  know  an  ex- 
ception to  this.  Indeed,  their  intercourse  with 
them  is  very  much  promiscuous, — they  show  them 
not  much,  if  any  favor.  Masters  frequently  fol- 
low the  example  of  their  overseers  in  this  thing. 
"  George  W.  Westgate." 


II,  TORTURES,  BY  IRON  COLLARS,  CHAINS,  FETTERS,  HANDCUFFS,  &c. 


The  slaves  are  often  tortured  by  iron  collars, 
with  long  prongs  or  "  horns."  and  sometimes  bells 
attached  to  them — they  are  made  to  wear  chains, 
handcuffs,  fetters,  iron  clogs,  bars,  rings,  and 
bands  of  iron  upon  their  limbs,  iron  marks  upon 
their  faces,  iron  gags  in  their  mouths,  &c. 

In  proof  of  this,  we  give  the  testimony  ofslave. 
holders  themselves,  under  their  own  names ;  it 
will  be  mostly  in  the  form  of  extracts  from  their 
own  advertisements,  in  southern  newspapers,  in 
which,  deecribing  their  runaway  elaves,  they  spe- 


cify the  iron  collars,  handcuffs,  chains,  fetters, 
&c.,  which  they  wore  upon  their  necks,  wrists, 
ankles,  and  other  parts  of  their  bodies.  To  pub. 
lish  the  ivhole  of  each  advertisement,  would  need- 
lessly occupy  space  and  lax  the  reader  ;  we  shall 
consequently,  as  heretofore,  give  merely  the  name 
of  the  advertiser,  the  name  and  date  of  tlic  news- 
paper containing  the  advertisement,  with  the  place 
of  publication,  and  only  so  much  of  the  advertise- 
ment as  will  give  the  particular  fact,  proving  the 
truth  of  the  assertion  contained  in  the  general  head. 


Punishments — Tortures. 


73 


WITNESSES. 

Wiiliam  Toler,  sheriff  of  Simpson 
county,  Mississippi,  in  the  "Southern 
c>U!i,"  Jacitsou,  Mississippi,  September 
'»,  1838. 

Mr.  James  R.  Green,  in  the  "  Beacon," 
Groensborough,  Alabama,  August  23, 
1838. 

Mr.  Hazlet  Lnflano,  in  tlie  "  Specta- 
tor," Staunton,  Virginia,  Sept.  27, 183^. 


TESTIMONY. 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  yellow  boy  named  Jim — had  on  a 
large  lock  chain  around  his  neck." 

Ranaway,  a  negro  man  named  Squire — had  on  a  chain  locked 
with  a  house-lock,  around  his  neck." 

"  Ranaway,    a  negro  named  David — with  some  iron  hobbles 
around  each  ankle," 


Mr.  T.  Enggy,  New  Orleans,  GaUa- 
tin  street,  between  Hospital  and  Bar- 
raclts,  N.  O.  "  Bee,"  Oct.  '27,  1837. 

Mr.  John  Henderson,  Washington, 
county.  Mi.,  in  tlie  "  Grand  Gulf  Adver- 
tiser," August  2J,  1833. 

William  Dyer,  sheriff,  Claiborne, 
Louisiana,  in  the  "  Herald,"  Natchi- 
toches, (La.)  July  26,  1837. 

Mr.  Owen  Cooke,  "  Mary  street,  be- 
tween Common  and  Jackson  streets," 
New  Orleans,  in  the  N.  O.  "  Bee,"  Sep- 
tember 12,  1837. 

H.  W.  Rice,  sheriff,  Colleton  district, 
.South  Carolina,  in  the  "  Charleston 
Mercury,"  September  1, 1838. 

W.  P.  Reeves,  jailor,  Shelby  county, 
Tennessee,  in  the  "  Memphis  Enquirer, 
June  17, 1837. 

Mr.  Francis  Uurett,  Lexington,  Lau- 
derdalj  county,  Ala.,  in  the  "  Hunts- 
ville  Democrat,"  August  29,  1837. 

Mr.  .\.  Murat,  Baton  Rouge,  in  tlie 
New  Orleans  "  Bee,"  June  20, 1837. 

Mr.  Jordan  Abbott,  in  the  "  Huntsville 
Democrat,"  Nov.  17, 1838. 

Mr.  J.  Alacoin,  No.  177  Arm  street, 
New  Orleans,  in  tlie  "  Bee,"  August  11, 
1838. 

Menard  Brothers,  parish  of  Ber- 
nard, Louisiana,  in  the  N.  O.  "Bee," 
August  18, 1838. 

Messrs.  J.  L.  and  W.  H.  Bolton,  Shel- 
by county,  Tennessee,  in  tlie  "  Memphis 
Enquirer,"  June  7,  1337. 

H.  Gridly,  sheriff  of  Adams  county. 
Mi.,  in  the'-M.mphis  (Tenn.)  Times," 
September,  1S34. 

Mr.  Lambre,  in  the  "  Natchitoclies 
(La.)  Herald,"  March  29,  1837. 

Mr.  Ferdinand  Lemos,  New  Orleans, 
in  the  "Bee,"  January  29,  18 '8. 

Mr.  T.  J.  De  Yanipcrt,  merchant,  Mo- 
bile, Alabama,  of  the  firm  of  De  Yam- 
pert,  King  &  Co.,  in  the  "  MobUe  Chron- 
icle," June  15, 18J8. 

J.  H.  Hand,  jailor,  St.  Francisville, 
La.,  in  the  "Louisiana  Chronicle," July 
26,  1837. 


Mr.  Charles  Curcner,  New  Orleans,  in 
tiie  "  Bee,"  July  2,  1333. 

Mr.  P.  T.  Manning,  Huntsville,  Ala- 
bama, Id  the  "Huntsville  Advocate," 
Oct.  23,  1338. 

Mr.  William  L.  Lamb.?th,  Lynch- 
burg, Virginia,  in  the  "  Moulton  f Ala.] 
Wlfig,"  January  30,  1836. 


"  Ranaway,  negress  Caroline — had  on  a  collar  with  one  prong 
turned  down," 

"  Ranaway,  a  black  woman,  Betsey — had  an  iron  bar  on  her 
right  leg." 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  named  Ambrose — has  a  ring 
of  iron  around  his  neck." 


"  Ranaway,  my  slave  Amos,  had  a  chain  attached  to  one  of 
his  legs." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  nejjro  named  Patrick,  about  forty-five 
years  old,  and  is  handcuffed." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro — had  on  his  right  leg  an  iron  band 
with  one  link  of  a  chain." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  man  named  Charles — had  on  a  dravoing 
chain,  fastened  aroimd  his  ankle  with  a  house  lock." 

"Ranaway,  the  negro  Manuel,  much  marked  with  irons." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  boy  named  Daniel,  about  nineteen  years 
old,  and  was  handcuffed." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negress  Fanny — had  on  an  iron  band  about 
her  neck." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  named  John — having  an  iron  around  his 
right  foot." 

"Absconded,  a  colored  boy  named  Peter — had  s.n  iron  round 
his  neck  when  he  went  away." 

"Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  boy — ^liadona  large  neck 
iron  with  a  huge  pair  of  horns  and  a  large  bar  or  band  of  iron 
on  his  left  leg." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negro  boy  Teams — he  had  on  his  neck  an  iron 
collar." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negro  George — he  had  on  his  neck  an  iron 
collar,  the  branches  of  which  had  been  taken  off." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  boy  about  twelve  years  old — had  round 
his  neck  a  chain  dog-collar,  with  '  De  Yampert  engraved  on  it." 


"  Committed  to  jail,  slave  John — has  several  scars  on  his  wrists, 
occasioned,  as  he  saj's,  by  handcuffs." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negro,  Hown — has  a  ring  of  iron  on  his  left 
foot.  Also,Grisee,his  loife,  having  a  ring  and  chain  on  the 
left  leg." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  boy  named  James — said  boy  was  ironed 
when  he  left  me." 

"  Ranaway,  Jim — had  on  when  he  escaped  a  pair  of  chain  haniL 
cuffs.'' 


74 


Punishments — Tortures. 


Mr.  D.  F.  Guex,  Socrctaiy  of  the 
Steam  Cotton  Prrss  Coiiipiiiiy,  A>vv  Or- 
l(>ans,  in  the  "  Coininurcial  BuUetin," 
May  07, 1837. 

Mr.  Francis  Diirett,  Lpxinston,  Ala- 
bama, in  till!  "  lluntsvillc  Democrat," 
March  8,  1838. 

B.  W.  Hodgrp,  jailor.  Pike  county, 
Alabama,  in  the  "  Montijoniery  Adver- 
tiser," Sept.  29, 1837. 

P.  Bayhi,  captain  of  police,  in  the  N. 
O.  •' B-je,"  June  y,  1838. 

Mr.  Charles  Kernin,  parish  of  Jeffer- 
son, Louisiana,  in  the  N.  O.  "Bee," 
August  11,  1837. 

The  foregoing  advertisements  are  sufficient  for 
our  purpose,  scores  of  similar  ones  may  be  gather- 
ed from  the  newspapers  of  the  slave  states  every 
month. 

To  the  preceding  testimony  of  slaveholders, 
published  by  themselves,  and  vouched  for  by  their 
own  signatures,  we  subjoin  the  following  testi- 
mony of  other  witnesses  to  the  same  point. 

John  M.  Nelson,  Esq.,  a  native  of  Virginia, 
now  a  highly  respected  citizen  of  Highland  county, 
Ohio,  and  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Hillsborough,  in  a  recent  letter  states  the  fol- 
lowing : — 

"  In  Staunton,  Va.,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Robert 
M'Dovvell,  a  merchant  of  that  place,  I  once  saw  a 
colored  woman,  of  intelligent  and  dignified  ap- 
pearance, who  appeared  to  be  attending  to  the 
business  of  the  house,  with  an  iron  collar  around 
her  neck,  with  horns  or  prongs  extending  out  on 
either  side,  and  up,  until  they  met  at  something 
like  a  foot  above  her  head,  at  which  point  there 
was  a  bell  attached.  This  yoke,  as  they  called 
it,  I  understood  was  to  prevent  her  from  running 
away,  or  to  punish  her  for  having  done  so.  I  had 
frequently  seen  men  with  iron  collars,  but  this  was 
the  first  instance  that  I  recollect  to  have  seen  a 
female  thus  degraded." 

Major  Horace  Nye,  an  elder  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  at  Putnam,  Muskingum  county, 
Ohio,  in  a  letter,  dated  Dec.  5,  1838,  makes  the 
following  statement: — 

'  Mr.  Wm.  Armstrong,  of  this  place,  who  is 
frequently  employed  by  our  citizens  as  captain 
and  supercargo  of  descending  boats,  whose  word 
maybe  relied  on,  has  just  made  to  me  the  follow- 
ing statement : — 

"While  laying  at  Alexandria,  on  Red  River, 
Louisiana,  he  saw  a  slave  brought  to  a  black- 
gmith's  shop  and  a  collar  of  iron  fastened  round 
his  neck,  with  two  pieces  rivettcd  to  the  sides, 
meeting  some  distanoe  above  his  head.  At  the 
top  of  the  arch,  thus  formed,  was  attached  a  large 
cow-bell,  the  motion  of  which,  while  walking  the 
streets,  made  it  necessary  for  the  slave  to  hold  his 
hand  to  one  of  its  sides,  to  steady  it. 

"  In  New  Orleans  ho  saw  several  with  iron  col- 
lars, with  horns  attached  to  them.  The  first  he 
saw  had  three  prongs  projecting  from  the  collar 
ten  or  twelve  inches,  with  the  letter  S  on  the  end 
of  each.  He  says  iron  collars  are  quite  frequent 
there. 


"Ranaway,  Edmund  Coleman — it  is   supposed  he  must  have 
iron  shackles  on  his  ankles." 


''  Ranaway ,  a  mulatto — had  on  when  he  left,  a  pair  oj 

handcuffs  and  a  pair  of  drawing  chains." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  man  who  calls  his  name  John — he  has 
s.  clog  of  iron  on  his  right  foot  which  will  weigh  four  or  five 
pounds." 

"  Detained  at  the  police  jail,  the  negro  wench  Myra — has 
several  marks  of  lashing,  and  has  irons  on  her  feet." 

"  Ranaway,  Betsey — when  she  left  she  had  on  her  neck  an  iron 
collar." 

To  the  preceding  Major  Nye  adds  : — 
"  When  I  was  about  twelve  years  of  age  I  lived 
at  Marietta,  in  this  state  :  I  knew  little  of  slaves, 
as  there  were  few  or  none,  at  that  time,  in  the 
part  of  Virginia  opposite  that  place.  But  I  re- 
member seeing  a  slave  who  had  run  away  from 
some  place  beyond  ni}'  knowledge  at  that  time  : 
he  had  an  iron  collar  round  his  neck,  to  which 
was  a  strap  of  iron  rivettcd  to  tiie  collar,  on  each 
side,  passing  over  the  top  of  the  head ;  and  ano- 
ther strap,  from  the  back  side  to  the  top  of  the 
first — thus  inclosing  the  head  on  three  sides.  I 
looked  on  while  the  blacksmith  severed  the  collar 
with  a  file,  which,  I  think,  took  him  more  than 
an  hour." 

Rev.  John  Dudley,  Mount  Morris,  Pilicbigan, 
resided  as  a  teacher  at  the  irjissionary  station, 
among  the  Choctaws,  in  Mississippi,  during  the 
years  1830  and  31.  In  a  letter  just  received  Mr. 
Dudley  says : — 

"  During  the  time  I  was  on  missionary  ground, 
which  was  in  1830  and  31, 1  was  frequently  at  the 
residence  of  the  agent,  who  was  a  slaveholder. — 
I  never  knew  of  his  treating  his  own  slaves  with 
cruelty ;  but  the  poor  fellows  who  were  escaping, 
and  lodged  with  him  when  detected,  found  no 
clemency.  I  once  saw  there  a  fetter  for  '  the 
d — d  runaioays,'  the  weight  of  which  can  be 
judged  by  its  size.  It  was  at  least  three  inches 
wide,  half  an  inch  thick,  and  somclhing  over  a  foot 
long.  At  this  time  I  saw  a  poor  fellow  compelled 
to  work  in  the  field,  at 'logging,' _ with  such  a 
galling  fetter  on  his  ankles.  To  prevent  it  from 
wearing  his  ankles,  a  siring  was  tied  to  the  centre, 
by  which  the  victim  suspended  it  when  he  walked, 
with  one  hand,  and  with  the  other  carried  his  bur- 
den. Wlienever  he  lifted,  the  fetter  rested  on  his 
bare  ankles.  If  he  lost  his  balance  and  made  a  mis- 
step, which  must  very  often  occur  in  lifting  and 
rolling  logs,  the  torture  of  his  fetter  M^as  severe. 
Thus  he  was  doomed  to  work  while  wearing  the 
torttiring  iron,  day  after  day,  and  at  night  he  was 
confined  in  the  runaways'  jail.  Some  time  after 
this,  I  saw  the  same  dejected,  heart-broken  crea- 
ture obliged  to  wait  on  the  other  hands,  who  were 
husking  corn.  The  privilege  of  sitting  with  the 
others  was  too  much  for  him  to  enjoy  ;  he  was 
made  to  hobble  from  house  to  bam  and  barn  to 
house,  to  carry  food  and  drink  for  tbe  rest.  Ho 
passed  round  the  end  of  the  house  where  I  was 
sitting  witli  the  agent  :  he  si'cmed  to  take  no  no- 
tice of  me,  but  fixed  his  eyes  on  his  tormentor  till 
he  passed  quite  by  us." 


Punishments — Tortures. 


75 


Mr.  Alfred  Wilkinson,  member  of  the  Baptist 
Church  in  Skcneateles,  N.  Y.  and  an  assessor 
of  that  town,  testifies  as  follows  : — 

"  I  stayed  Ijl  New  Orleans  three  weeks  :  during 
that  time  there  used  to  pass  by  where  I  stayed  a 
number  of  slaves,  each  with  an  iron  band  around 
his  ankle,  a  chain  attached  to  it,  and  an  eighteen 
pound  ball  at  the  end.  They  were  employed  in 
wheelin^r  dirt  with  a  wheelbarrow  ;  they  would 
put  the  ball  into  the  barrow  when  they  moved. — 
I  recollect  one  day,  that  I  counted  nineteen  of 
tliem,  sometimes  there  were  not  as  many  ;  they 
were  driven  by  a  slave,  with  a  long  lash,  as  if  they 
were  bpasts.  These,  I  learned,  were  runaway 
sla%'cs  from  the  plantations  above  New  Orleans. 

"  There  was  also  a  negro  woman,  that  used 
daily  to  come  to  the  market  with  milk  ;  she  had 
an  iron  band  around  her  neck,  with  three  rods 
projecting  from  it,  about  sixteen  inches  long, 
crooked  at  the  ends." 

For  the  fact  which  follows  we  are  indebted  to 
Mr.  Samuel  Hall,  a  teacher  in  Marietta  College, 
Oliio.     We  quote  his  letter. 

"  Mr.  CuR-Tis,  a  journeyman  cabinet-maker,  of 
Marietta,  relates  the  following,  of  which  he  was 
an  eye  witness.  Mr.  Curtis  is  every  way  worthy 
of  credit. 

"  In  September,  1837,  at  '  Milligan's  Bend,'  in 
the  Mississippi  river,  I  saw  a  negro  with  an  iron 
band  around  his  head,  locked  behind  with  a  pad- 
lock. In  the  front,  where  it  passed  the  mouth, 
there  was  a  projection  inward  of  an  inch  and  a 
half,  which  entered  the  mouth. 

"  Tlie  overseer  told  me,  he  was  so  addicted  to 
running  avvay,  it  did  not  do  any  good  to  whip  him 
for  it.  He  said  he  kept  this  gag  constantly  on 
him,  and  intended  to  do  so  as  long  as  ho  was  on 
the  plantation  :  so  that,  if  he  ran  away,  he  could 
not  eat,  and  would  starve  to  death.  The  slave 
asked  for  drink  in  my  presence  ;  and  the  overseer 
made  him  lie  down  on  his  back,  and  turned  wa- 
ter on  his  face  tvi^o  or  three  feet  high,  in  order  to 
torment  him,  as  he  could  not  swallow  a  drop. — 
The  slave  then  asked  permission  to  go  to  the  ri- 
ver; which  being  granted,  he  thrust  his  face  and 
head  entirely  under  the  water,  tliat  being  the  only 
way  he  could  drink  with  his  gag  on.  The  gag 
was  taken  off  when  he  took  his  food,  and  then  re- 
placed afterwards." 

Extract  of  a  Letter,  from  Mrs.  Sophia  Lit- 
tle, of  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Asher  Robbins,  senator  in  Congress  for  that  state. 

"  There  was  lately  found,  in  the  hold  of  a  vessel 
engaged  in  the  southern  trade,  by  a  person  who 
v;as  cleiring  it  out,  an  iron  collar,  with  three 
horns  projecting  from  it.  It  seems  that  a  young 
female  slave,  on  whose  slender  neck  was  rivet- 
ed this  fiendish  instrument  of  torture,  ran  away 
from  her  tyrant,  and  begged  the  captain  to  bring 
her  olT  with  iiim.  This  the  captain  refused  to  do; 
butunrivcted  the  collar  from  her  neck,  and  threw 
it  away  in  the  hold  of  the  vessel.  The  collar  is 
now  at  the  anti-slavery  office,  Providence.  To 
tlie  truth  of  these  facts  Mr.  William  H.  Reed,  a 
gentleman  of  the  highest  moral  character,  is  ready 
to  vouch. 

"  Mr.  Reed  is  in  possession  of  many  facts  of 
cruelty  witnessed  by   persons  of  veracity;    but 


these  witnesses  are  not  willing  to  give  their  names. 
One  case  in  particular  he  mentioned.  Speaking 
with  a  certain  captain,  of  the  state  of  the  slaves 
at  the  south,  the  captain  contended  that  their 
punishments  were  often  very /e/HCHi;  and,  as  an 
instance  of  their  excellent  clemency,  mentioned, 
that  in  one  instance,  not  wishing  to  whip  a  slave, 
they  sent  him  to  a  blacksmith,  and  had  an  iron 
band  fastened  around  him,  with  three  long  pro- 
jections  reaching  above  his  head ;  and  this  he 
wore  some  time." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Mr.  Jonathan  F. 
Baldwin,  of  Lorain  county,  Ohio.  Mr.  B.  was 
formerly  a  merchant  in  Massillon,  Ohio,  and  an 
elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  there. 

"  Dear  Brother, — In  conversation  with  Judge 
Lyman,  of  Litchfield  county,  Connecticut,  last 
June,  he  stated  to  me,  that  several  years  since  he 
was  in  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  and  observing 
a  colored  man  lying  on  the  floor  of  a  blacksmith's 
shop,  as  he  was  passing  it,  his  curiosity  led  him 
in.  He  learned  the  man  was  a  slave  and  rather 
unmanageable.  Several  men  were  attempting  to 
detach  from  his  ankle  an  iron  which  had  been 
bent  around  it. 

"  The  iron  was  a  piece  of  a  flat  bar  of  the  or- 
dinary size  from  the  forge  hammer,  and  bent 
around  the  ancle,  tlie  ends  meeting,  and  forming 
a  hoop  of  about  the  diameter  of  the  leg.  There 
was  one  or  more  strings  attached  to  the  iron  and 
extending  up  around  his  neck,  evidently  so  to 
suspend  it  as  to  prevent  its  galling  by  its  weight 
when  at  work,  yet  it  had  galled  or  griped  till  the 
leg  had  swollen  out  beyond  the  iron  and  inflamed 
and  supurated,  so  that  the  leg  for  a  considerable 
distance  above  and  below  the  iron,  was  a  mass 
of  putrefaction,  the  most  loathsome  of  any  wound 
he  had  ever  witnessed  on  any  living  creature. 
The  slave  lay  on  his  back  on  the  floor,  with  his 
leg  on  an  anvil  which  sat  also  on  the  floor,  one 
man  had  a  chisel  used  for  splitting  iron,  and  ano- 
ther struck  it  with  a  sledge,  to  drive  it  betvv-een 
the  ends  of  the  hoop  and  separate  it  so  that  it 
might  be  taken  off".  Mr.  Lyman  said  that  the 
man  swung  the  sledge  over  his  shoulders  as  if 
splitting  iron,  and  struck  many  blows  before  he 
succeeded  in  parting  the  ends  of  the  iron  at  all, 
the  bar  was  so  large  and  stubborn — at  length 
they  spread  it  as  far  as  they  could  without  driv- 
ing the  chisel  so  low  as  to  ruin  the  leg.  The  slave, 
a  man  of  twenty-five  years,  perhaps,  whose  coun- 
tenance was  the  index  of  a  mind  ill  adapted  to 
the  degradations  of  slavery,  never  uttered  a  word 
or  a  groan  in  all  the  process,  but  the  copious  flow  of 
sweat  from  every  pore,  the  dreadful  contractions 
and  distortions  of  every  muscle  in  his  body,  show- 
ed clearly  the  great  amount  of  his  suflterings; 
and  all  this  while,  such  was  the  diseased  state  of 
the  limb,  that  at  every  blow,  the  bloody,  corrupt- 
ed matter  gushed  out  in  all  directions  several  feet, 
in  such  profusion  as  literally  to  cover  a  large  area 
around  the  anvil.  After  various  other  fruitless 
attempts  to  spread  the  iron,  they  concluded  it  was 
necessary  to  weaken  by  filing  before  it  could  be 
got  off",  which  he  left  them  attempting  to  do." 

Mr.  V/illiam  Drown,  a  well  knowTi  citizen  of 
Rhode  Island,  formerly  of  Providence,  who  has 


76 


Punishments — Tortures. 


traveled  in  nearly  all  the  s^  avc  states,  thus  testi- 
lies  in  a  recent  letter  : 

"  I  recollcet  seeing  large  gangs  of  slaves,  gc- 
neraliy  a  considerable  number  in  each  gang,  be. 
inor  chained,  passing  westward  over  the  moun- 
tains from  Maryland,  Virginia,  &c.  to  the  Ohio. 
On  that  river  I  have  frequently  seen  flat  boats 
loaded  with  them,  and  their  keepers  armed  with 
pistols  and  dirks  to  giiarJ  them. 

"  At  New  Orleans  I  recollect  seeing  gangs  of 
slaves  that  were  driven  out  every  day,  the  Sab- 
bath not  excepted,  to  work  on  the  streets.  These 
had  heavy  chains  to  connect  two  or  more  to- 
gether, and  some  had  iron  collars  and  yokes,  &c. 
The  noise  as  they  walked,  or  worked  in  their 
chains,  was  truly  dreadful." 

Rev.  Thomas  Savage,  pastor  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  at  Bedford,  New  Hampshire,  who 
was  for  some  years  a  resident  of  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana,  gives  the  following  fact,  in  a  letter  dat- 
ed January  9,  1839. 

"  In  1819,  while  employed  as  an  instructor  at 
Second  Creek,  near  Natchez,  Mississippi,!  resided 
on  a  plantation  where  I  witnessed  the  following 
circumstance.  One  of  the  slaves  was  in  the  habit 
of  running  away.  He  had  been  repeatedly  taken, 
and  repeatedly  wl lipped,  with  great  s'c verity,  but 
to  no  purpose.  He  would  still  seize  the  first  op- 
portunify  to  escape  from  the  plantation.  At  last 
his  owner  declared,  I'll  fix  hiin,  I'll  put  a  stop  to 
liis  running  away.  He  accordingly  took  him  to  a 
blacksmith,  and  had  an  iron  head-frame  made  for 
him,  which  may  be  called  lock-jaw,  from  the  use 
that  was  made  of  it.  It  had  a  lock  and  key,  and 
was  so  constructed,  that  when  on  the  head  and 
locked,  the  slave  could  not  open  his  mouth  to 
take  food,  and  the  design  was  to  prevent  his  run- 
ning away.  But  the  device  proved  unavailing.  He 
was  soon  missing,  and  whether  by  his  own  despe- 
rate effort,  or  the  aid  of  others,  contrived  to  sus. 
tain  himself  with  food  ;  but  he  was  at  last  taken, 
and  if  my  memory  serves  me,  his  life  was  soon 
terminated  by  the  cruel  treatment  to  wliich  he 
was  subjected." 

The  Western  Luminary,  a  religious  paper  pub- 
lished at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  an  editorial 
article,  in  the  summer  of  1 833,  says : 

"  A  few  weeks  since  we  gave  an  account  of  a 
company  of  men,  women  and  children,  part  of 
v/hom  were  manacled,  passing  through  our  streets. 
Last  week,  a  number  of  sla  pes  were  driven  through 
the  main  street  of  our  city,  among  whom  were  a 
number  manacled  together,  two  abreast,  all  con- 
nected by,  and  supporting  a  heaiiij  iron  chain, 
which  extended  the  whole  length  of  the  line." 

TESTIMONY  OF  A  VIRGINIAN. 

The  najnc  of  this  witness  cannot  be  published, 
as  it  would  put  him  in  peril ;  but  his  credibility 
is  vouched  for  by  the  Rev.  Ezra  Fisher,  pastor 
of  the  Baptist  Churcli,  Qnincy,  Illinois,  and  Dr. 
Richard  Eels,  of  the  same  place.  These  gen- 
tlemen say  of  him,  "  We  have  great  confidence 
in  liis  integrity,  discretion,  and  strict  Christian 
principle."     He  says — 

"  About  five  years  ago,  I  remember  to  have 
passed,  in  a  single  day,  four  droTes  of  slaves  for 


the  south  west ;  the  largest  drove  had  350  slarcs 
in  it,  and  the  smallest  upwards  of  200.  I  count- 
ed 68  or  70  in  a  single  coffle.  The  '  cofflc  chain' 
is  a  chain  fastened  at  one  end  to  the  centre  of 
the  bar  of  a  pair  of  hand  cuffs,  which  are  fasten- 
ed to  the  right  wrist  of  one,  and  the  left  wrist  of 
another  slave,  they  standing  abreast,  and  the 
chain  between  them.  Tliese  are  the  head  of  the 
eoflle.  The  other  end  is  passed  through  a  rinw 
in  the  bolt  of  the  next  handcuffs,  and  the  slaves 
being  manacled  thus,  two  and  two  togetlier,  walk 
up,  and  the  coffle  chain  is  passed,  and  they  go 
up  towards  the  head  of  the  cofilc.  Of  course 
they  arc  closer  or  wider  apart  in  the  coffle,  ac- 
cording  to  the  number  to  be  coffled,  and  to  the 
length  of  the  chain.  /  have  seen  iu'ndreds  of 
droves  and  chain-coffles  of  this  description,  and 
every  cofile  was  a  scene  of  misery  and  wo,  of 
tears  and  brokenness  of  heart." 

Mr.  Samuel  Hall,  a  teacher  in  Marietta  Col- 
lege, Ohio,  gives,   in  a  late  letter,  the  following 
;  •  atcment  of  a  fellow  student,  from  Kentucky,  of  ~ 
\\  hom  he  says,  "  he  is  a  professor  of  religion,  and 
worthy  of  entire  confidence." 

"  I  have  seen  at  \ca.st  fifteen  droves  of  '  human 
cattle,'  passing  by  us  on  their  way  to  the  south  ; 
and  I  do  not  recollect  an  exception,  where  there 
were  not  more  or  less  of  them  chained  together." 

Mr.  George  P.  C.  Hussey,  of  Fayctteville, 
Franklin  county,  Pennsylvania,  writes  thus  : 

"  I  was  born  and  raised  in  Hagerstown,  Wash- 
ington county,  Maryland,  where  slavery  is  per- 
haps milder  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  slave 
states  ;  and  yet  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  colored 
men  and  women  chained  together,  two  by  two, 
and  driven  to  the  south.  I  have  seen  slaves  tied  up 
and  lashed  till  the  blood  ran  down  to  their  heels." 

Mr.  GiDDiNGS,  member  of  Congress  from  Ohio, 
in  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
Feb.  13,  1839,  made  the  following  statement : 

"  On  the  beautiful  avenue  in  front  of  the  Capi- 
tol, members  of  Congress,  during  this  session, 
have  been  compelled  to  turn  aside  from  their 
path,  to  permit  a  eoflle  of  slaves,  males  and  fe- 
males,  chained  to  each  other  by  their  necks,  to  pass 
on  their  way  to  this  national  slave  7narhet." 

Testimony  of  James  K.  Paulding,  Esq.  the  pre- 
sent Secretary  of  the  LTnited  States'  Navy. 

In  1817,  Mr.  Paulding  published  a  work,  en- 
titled '  Letters  from  the  South,  written  during 
an  excursion  in  the  summer  of  1816.'  In  the 
first  volume  of  that  work,  page  128,  Mr.  P.  gives 
the  following  description  : 

"  The  sun  was  sliining  out  very  hot — and  in 
turning  the  angle  of  the  road,  we  encountered  the  '•< 
following  group :  first,  a  little  cart  drawn  by  one  9 
horse,  in  which  five  or  six  half  naked  black  child- 
ren were  tumbled  like  pigs  together.  The  cart 
had  no  covering,  and  they  seemed  to  have  been 
broiled  to  sleep.  Behind  the  cart  marched  three 
black  women,  with  head,  neck  and  breasts  un- 
covered, and  without  shoes  or  stockin<];s  :  next 
came  three  men,  bare-headed,  and  chained  to- 
gether zcith  an  ox.chain.  Last  of  all,  came  a 
.  white  man  on  horse  back,  carrying  his  pistols  in 


Punishments — Brandinsjs. 


77 


his  belt,  and  who,  as  we  passed  him,  had  the  im- 
pudence to  look  us  in  the  face  without  blushing. 
At  a  house  where  we  stopped  a  little  further  on, 
we  learned  that  he  had  bought  these  miserable 
beings  in  Maryland,  and  was  marching  them  in 
this  manner  to  one  of  the  more  southern  states, 
yiiame  on  the  State  of  Maryland  I  and  I  say, 
shame  on  the  State  of  Virginia  !  and  every  state 
through  which  this  wretched  cavalcade  was  per- 
mitted to  pass  lido  say,  that  when  they  (the  slave- 
holders) permit  such  flagrant  and  indecent  out- 
rages upon  humanity  as  that  I  have  described  ; 
%vhen  they  sanction  a  villain  in  thus  marching 
half  naked  women  and  men,  loaded  with  chains, 
without  being  charged  with  any  crime  but  that 
of  being  black,  from  one  section  of  the  United 
States  to  another,  hundreds  of  miles  in  the  face 


of  day,  they  disgrace  themselves,  and  the  coun- 
try to  which  they  belong."* 

*  Tlie  fact  that  Mr.  Paulding,  in  the  reprint  of  these 
"  Letters,"  in  1835,  struck  out  this passaire  with  all  others 
disparaging  to  slavery  and  its  supporters,  docs  not  impair 
the  force  of  his  testimony,  however  much  it  may  sink  tlie 
nnn.  Nor  will  the  next  generatio.i  regard  with  any  more 
reverence,  liis  character  as  a  p;-o;)Ac«,  because  in  tlie  edition 
of  1835,  two  years  after  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society 
was  formed,  and  when  its  auxiliaries  were  numbered  by 
hundreds,  he  inserted  a  prediction,  that  such  movements 
would  bo  made  at  the  North,  with  most  disastrous  results. 
"  Wot  ye  not  that  such  a  man  as  I  can  certainly  divine !" 
Mr.  Paulding  has  already  been  taught  by  Judge  Jay,  that 
lie  who  aspires  to  the  fame  of  an  oracle,  without  its  in 
spiration,  must  resort  to  other  expedients  to  prevent 
detection,  than  the  clumsy  one  of  antedating  his  responses. 


III.  BRANDINGS,  MAIMINGS,  GUN-SHOT  WOUNDS,  &c. 


The  slaves  are  often  branded  with  hot  irons, 
pu  rsued  with  fire  arms  and  shot,  hunted  with 
dogs  and  torn  by  them,  shockingly  maimed  with 
knives,  dirks,  &c. ;  have  their  ears  cut  off,  their 
eyes  knocked  out,  their  bones  dislocated  and 
broken  with  bludgeons,  their  fingers  and  toes  cut 
off,  their  faces  and  other  parts  of  their  persons 
disfigured  with  scar.s  and  gashes,  besides  those 
made  with  the  lash. 

We   shall  adopt,  under  this    head   the   same 


course  as  that  pursued  under  previous  ones, — first 
give  the  testimony  of  the  slaveholders  themselves, 
to  the  mutilations,  &c.  by  copying  their  own 
graphic  descriptions  of  them,  in  advertisements 
published  under  their  own  names,  and  in  news- 
papers published  in  the  slave  states,  and,  general- 
ly, in  their  own  immediate  vicinity.  We  shaJ, 
as  heretofore,  insert  only  so  much  of  each  adver- 
tisement as  will  be  necessary  to  make  the  point 
intelligible. 


WITNESSES. 

Mr.  Micajah  Ricks,  Nash  County, 
Nortli  Carolina,  in  the  Raleigh  "  Stand- 
ard," July  18, 1838. 


Mr.  Asa  B.  Metcalf,  Kingston,  Adams 
Co.  Mi.  in  ttie  "Natchez  Courier," 
June  15, 1832. 

Mr.  William  Overstrcet,  Benton, 
Yazoo  Co.  Mi.  in  the  "  Lexuigton 
(Kentucky)  Observer,"  July   32,  1838. 


Mr.  R.  V.  Carney,  Clark  Go.  Ala., 
In  the  Mobile  Register,  Dec.  22, 18J2. 


M 
tlie 


Ir.  J.  Guylcr,  Savannah  Georgia,  in 
"  Republican,"  April  12,  1837. 


J.  A.  Brown,  jailor,  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  in  the  "  Mercury,"  Jan.  12, 
1837. 

Mr.  J  Scrivener,  Herring  Bay,  Anne 
Arundel  Co.  Maryland,  in  the_  Anna- 
polis Republican,  April  18,  1837. 

Madame  Burvant,  comer  of  Chartrcs 
and  Toulouse  streets,  New  Orleans,  in 
the  "Bee,"  Dec.  21,  1838. 

Mr.  O.  W.  Lains,  in  the  "  Helena, 
(Ark.)  Journal,"  June  1, 1833. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Sizer,  in  the  "  Grand  Gulf, 
fMi.]  Advertiser,"  July  8,  1837. 


Mr.  Nicholas  Edmunds,  in  the 
"  Petersburgh  [Va.l  Intelligncer,"  May 
22,1838. 


TESTIMONY. 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  woman  and  two  children  ;  a  few  days  be- 
fore she  went  off,  /  burnt  her  with  a  hot  iron,  on  the  left  side  of 
her  face,  /  tried  to  make  the  letter  M." 

"  Ranaway  Mary,  a  black  woman,  has  a  scar  on  her  back  and 
right  arm  near  the  shoulder,  caused  by  a  rifle  ball" 

''  Ranaway  a  negro  man  named  Henry,  his  left  eye  out,  some 
scars  from  a  dirk  on  and  under  his  left  arm,  and  viuch  scarred 
with  the  whip." 

One  hundred  dollars  reward  for  a  negro  fellov/  Pompcy,  40 
years  old,  he  is  branded  on  the  left  jaw. 

"  Ranaway  Laman,  an  old  negro  man,  grey,  has  only  one 
eye." 

"  Committed  to  jail  a  negro  man,  has  no  toes  on  his  left 
foot." 

"  Ranaway  negro  man  Elijah,  has  a  scar  on  his  left  cheek, 
apparently  occasioned  b}'  a  shot." 

"  Ranaway  a  negro  woman  named  Rachel,  has  lost  all  her  toei> 
except  the  large  one." 

"  Ranaway  Sam,  he  was  sAoi  a  short  time  since,  through  the 
hand,  and  has  several  shots  in  his  left  arm  and  side." 

''  Ranaway  my  negro  man  Dennis,  said  negro  has  been  shot 
I'm  the  left  arm  between  the  shoulders  and  elbow,  which  has 
jparalyzcd  the  left  hand." 

''  Ranaway  my  negro  man  named  Simon,  he  has  bfcii  shot 
badly  in  his  back  and  rijht  arm." 


78 


Punishments — Brandings. 


Mr.  J.  Bishop,  BishopvUle,  Sumpter 
District,  Soutli  Carolina,  in  tile  "  Cam- 
den [S.  C]  Journal,"  March  4,  1837. 


Mr.  S 
gia,  in 
July  3, 1837 


"  Ranaway  a  negro  named  Arthur,  has  a  considerable  scar 
aeross  his  lireast  and  each  arm,  made  by  a  knife  ;  loves  to  talk 
much  of  the  goodness  of  God." 

"  Ranaway  George,  ho  has  a  sword  cut  lately  received  on  his 
left  arm." 


!  Ncyle,  bittle  Ogeechee,  Geor- 
the   "  Savannah   Republican,' 

"  Tv7enty  five  dollars  reward  for  my  man  Isaac,  he  has  a  scar 
rs.  Sarah  Walsh,  Mobile,  Ala.  in  on  his  forehead  caused  by  a  blow,  and  one  on  his  back  made  by  a 
"Gcor!;ia  Journal,"  March  27,1^37,     gf^gf  fro7n  a  pistol." 

''  Ranaway  a  negro  girl  called  Mary,  has  a  small  scar    over 

ST  eye,  a  good  many  tee^ 
her  cheek  and  forehead." 

Ranaway  negro  Ben,  has  a  scar  on  his  right  hand,  his  thumb 
Mr.  Ely  Tovvnsentl,  Pike  Co.  Ala.,  in  and  fore  finger  being  injured  by  being  s/«o«  last  fall,  apartof  <  Ac  6one 
e "  Pcnsacola  Gazette,"  Sep.  16, 1837.  ,     ,         ,  .        ,  his  back  and  hins," 


Mrs 
the 


Mr.  J.  p.  Ashford,  Adams  Co.  Mi.  in     her  eye,  a  good  many  teeth  missing,  the  letter  A.  is  branded  on 
tUe"NatchezCourier,"  August 24, 1838.     ;,^^/./,„„t  „„w  /•->,-„;,„-,^  » 


the 

S.  B.  Murphy,  jailer,  Irvington,  Ga. 
fn  the  "  Millcdgf ville  Journal,"  May 
29, 1838. 

Mr.  A.  Luminals,  Parish  of  St.  John, 
Louisiana,  in  the  New  Orleans  "  Bee," 
March  3,  1838. 

Jlr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Pulaski  Co. 
Georgia,  in  the  "  MilledgeviUe  Journal," 
June  19,  1838. 


Mr.  Thomas  Hudn.iU,  Madison  Co. 
Mi.  in  the  "  Vicksburg  Register," 
aoptembcr  5,  1838. 

Mr.  John  McMurrain,  Columbus,  Ga. 
in  the  "  Southern  Sun,"    August     7, 

1838. 

Mr.  Bloses  Orme,  Annapolis,  Mary- 
land, in  the  "  Annapolis  Republican," 
June  20, 1837. 

WiUiarn  Strickland,  Jailor,  Kershaw 
District,  S.  C.  In  the  "  Camden  [S.  C] 
Courier,"  July  8,  1837. 

The  Editor  of  the  "  Grand  Gulf  Adver- 
tiser," Dec.  7, 1838. 

Mr.  William  Batoman,  in  the  "  Grand 
Gulf  Advertiser,"  Dec.  7, 1838. 

Mr.  B.  G.  Simmons,  in  the  "  Southern 
Argus,"  May  30, 1837. 

Mr.  James  Artop,  in  the  "  Macon 
fGa.]Messenger,  May  25,  1837. 


J.  L.  Jolley,  Sheriff  of  Clinton,  Co. 
Mi.,  in  the  "  Cluiton  Gazette,"  July 
23,  1636. 

Mr.  Thomas  Ledwith,  Jacksonville 
F.ast  Florida,  in  the  "  Charleston  [S.  C] 
Courier,  Sept.  1,  1838. 

Mr  Joseph  James,  Sen.,  Pleasant 
Ridge,  Paulding  Co.  Ga.,  in  the  "  Mil- 
ledgeviUe Union,"  Nov.  7,  1837. 

Mr.  W.  Riley,  Orangeburg  .District, 
South  Carolina,  in  the  "  C_<ilutnbia  [S.(^.] 
T'lescope,"  Nov.  11,  1837. 

Mr.  Samuel  Mason,  Warren  Co,  Mi., 
in  the  "  Vicksburg  Register,"  July  18, 
183a 


came  out,  he  has  also  one  or  two  large  scars  on  his  back  and  hips; 

"  Committed  a  negro  man,  is  very  badly  shot  in  the  right  side 
and  right  hand." 

''  Detained  at  the  jail,  a  mulatto  named  Tom,  has   a  scar  on' 
the  right  check  and  appears  to  have  been  burned   with  poioder 
on  the  face." 

"  Ranaway  a  negro  man  named  Ned,  three  of  his  fingers  are 
drawn  into  the  palm  of  his  hand  by  a  cut,  has  a  scar  on  the  back 
of  his  neck   nearly  half  round,  done  by  a  knife." 

"  Ranaway  a  negro  named  Hambleton,  limps  on  his  left  foot 
where  he  was  shot  a  few  weeks  ago,  while  runaway." 

"  Ranaway  a  negro  boy  named  Mose,  he  has  a  wound  in  the 
right  shoulder  near  the  back  bone,  which  was  occasioned  by  a 
rifle  shot." 

"  Ranaway  my  negro  man  Bill,  he  has  afresh  wound  in  his 
head  above  his  ear." 

"  Committed  to  jail  a  negro,  says  his  name  is  Cuffec,  he  is 
lame  in  one  knee,  occasioned  by  a  shot." 

"  Ranaway  Joshua,  his  thumb  is  off  of  his  left  hand." 

"  Ranaway  William,  scar  over  his  left  eye,  one  betvveen  his 
eye  brows,  one  on  his  breast,  and  his  right  leg  has  been  broken. ' 

"  Ranaway  Mark,  his  left  arm  has  been  broken,  right  leg 
also." 

"  Ranaway,  Caleb,  50  years  old,  has  an  awkward  gait  occa- 
sioned by  his  being  shot  in  the  thigh." 

"  Was  committed  to  jail  a  negro  man,  says  his  name  is 
Josiah,  his  back  very  much  scarred  by  the  whip,  ^nd  hranded 
on  the  thigh  and  hips,  in  three  or  jour  places,  thus  (J.  31.) 
the  rim  of  his  right  car  has  been  bit  or  cut  off.' 

"  Fifty  dollars  reward,  for  my  fellow  Edward  he  has  a  scar 
on  the  corner  of  his  mouth,  two  cuts  on  and  under  his  arm,  and 
the  letter  E  on  his  arm." 

"  Ranaway,  negro  boy  Ellic,  has  a  scar  on  one  of  his  arms 
from  the  bite  of  a  dog.' 

"  Ranaway  a  negro  man,  has  a  .car  on  the  ankle  produced 
by  a  burn,  and  a  mark  on  his  arm  resembling  the  letter  S. 

„o.vio<i  Allpn   he  has  a  scar  on  hia 

<  Ranaway.  a  ^<^^^-  "^^Xr^yt  ^dh^^ two  buck  shot  in 
breast,  also  a  scar  under  the  leii  eye,  aiiu 

his  right  arm." 


Punishments — Branding,  Maiming,  Scars. 


79 


Mr. 
ern 


"  Ranaway  from  the  plantation  of  James  Surgettc,  the  fol- 
r.  F.  L.  C.  Edwards,  in  the  "  South-  lowincr  negroes,  Randal  has  one  ear  cropped  ;  Boh,  has  lost  one 
Telegraph,"  Sept.  25, 1837  ^^^^  Kentucky  Tom,  has  onr  jaw  broken." 


Mr.   Stephen    M.    Jackson,    in    the 
Vitksburg  Register,"  March  10,  1837. 


"  Ranaway,  Anthony,  one  of  his  ears  cut  off,  and  his  left 
hand  cut  with  an  axe." 

"  Was  committed,  a  negro  man,  has  a  scar  on  his  right   side 

., '!t'^'P^""'if-"°"'-  ''''.''"^y„^''"'''"   °^    by  a  burn,  one   on  his  knee,  and  one   on  the  calf  of  his  leg  oy 
Halifa-x  Co.  Virginia,  Jan.  1837.  A     l-j       y      j       „ 

°      '  the  bite  of  a  dog. 

"  Absconded,  the  mulatto  boy  Tom,  his  fingers  scarred  on 
his  right  hand,  and  has  a  scar  on  his  right  cheek." 

'■  Ranaway  my  black  boy  Frazier,  with  a  scar  below  and 
one  above  his  right  ear." 

"  Ranaway,  Dick,  about  19,  has  lost  the  small  toe  of  one 
foot." 

"  Stolen  a  mulatto  boy,  ten  years  old,  he  has  a  scar  over  his 
eye  which  was  made  by  an  axe." 

"  Absconded  my  negro  man  Coleman,  has  a  venj  large  scar 
on  one  of  his  legs,  also  one  bn  each  arm,  by  a  burn,  and  his  heels 
have  been  frosted." 

"  Fifty  dollars  reward,  for  the  negro  Jim  Blake — has  a  piece 
cut  out  of  each  ear,  and  the  middle  finger  of  the  left  hand  cut  off 
to  the  second  joint." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  woman  named  Maria — has  a.  scar  on  one 
side  of  her  cheek,  by  a  cut — some  scars  on  her  back." 

"  Ranaway,  Gabriel — has  two  or  three  scars  across  his  neck 
made  witii  a  knife." 

"  Ranaway,  the  mulatto  wench  Mary — has  a  cut  on  the  left 
arm,  a  scar  on  the  shoulder,  and  two  upper  teeth  missing." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  boy,  named  Jerry — has  a  scar  on  his 
right  cheek  two  inches  long,  from  the  cut  of  a  knife." 


Stearns  &  Co.  No.  28,  New  Levee, 
New  Orleans,  in  the  "  Bee,"  Marcli  22, 

1837. 

Mr.  John  W.  Walton,  Greensboro  , 
Ala.  in  the  "  Alabama  Beacon," 
Oec.  13, 1838. 

Mr.  R.  Furman,  Charleston,  S.  C.  in 
the  "Cliarleston  Mercury,"  Jan.  12, 
1639. 

Mr.  John  Tart,  Sen.  in  the  "  Fayotle- 
vUIe  [N.   C]  Observer,"  Dec.  26,  1838. 

Mr.  Rir.hard  Overstreet,  Brook  Neal, 
Campbell  Co.  Virginia,  in  the  "  Danville 
I  Va.]  Reporter,"  Dec,  21.  1838. 

The  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  "Bee," 
in  that  paper,  August  27,  1837. 

Mr.  Bryant  Jolmson,  Fort  Valley, 
Houston  county,  Georgia,  in  the  Mil- 
ledgeville  "  Union,"  Oct.  2, 1838. 

Mr.  Lemuel  Miles,  Steen's  Creek,  Ran- 
kin county.  Mi.  in  the  "  Southern 
Sun,"  Sept.  22,  1838. 

Mr.  Bezou,  New  Orleans,  in  the 
"  Bee,"  May  23, 1838. 

Mr.  James  Kimborough,  Memphis, 
Tenii.  in  the  "  M«:n]phis  Enquirer,"July 
13,  1838. 

,_„,„,-,          r^       ■  "  Ranaway,  my  man  Fountain — has   Jioles  in  his  ears,  a  scar 

Mr.  Robert  Beaslcy,  Macon,  Georgia,  ,        -Ui'ii-i-ruji       i.           i.j-..z,j.-j         t 

in  the  "Georgia  Messenger  "  July  27,  on  the  right  side  ot  lus  forehead — has  been  s«oi  in  the  hind  parts 

1837  of  his  legs — is  marked  on  the  back  with  the  whip." 

Mr.  B.  G.  Barrer,  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  ''  Ranaway,  a  negro  man  named  Jarrett — has  a  scar  on  tlie  un- 

in  the  "  Republican,"  Sept.  6, 1837.  der  part  of  one  of  his  arms,  occasioned  by  a  wound  from  a  knife." 

Mr.  John  D.  Turner,  near  Norfolk,  "  Ranaway    a  negro  by  the   naine  of  Joshua-he    has  a    cut 

Virginia,  in  the  "  Norfolk  Herald,"  June     across  one  ot  his  ears,  which  he  will  conceal  as  much  as  possilile 
27, 1838.  — one  of  his  aJikles  is  enlarged  by  an  ulcer." 

Mr.  William  Stansell,  Picksville,  Ala. 
in  the  "  Huntsville  Democrat,"  August 
23,  1837. 


"  Ranaway,  negro  boy  Harper — has  a  scar  on  one  of  his  hips 
in  the  form  of  a  G." 

Hon. Ambrose  H.Sevier,  Senator  in         "Ranaway,  Bob   a  slave— has    A  scar  across  his   breast   ano- 
Congress,  from  Arkansas,  in  the  "  Vicks-     ther  on  the  right  side  oj  his  head — his  back  is  inuch  scarred  with 


burg  Register,"  of  Oct.  13. 


Mr.  R.  A.  Greene,  Milledgeville,  Geor- 
pia,  in  the  "  Macon  Messenger,"  July  27, 
1837. 


Benjamin  Russcl,  deputy  sheriff,  Bibb 
county,  Ga.  in  the  "  Macon  Telegraph," 
December  25,  1837. 

Hon.  H.  Hitchcock,  Mobile,  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  in  tlie  "  Commer- 
cial Register,"  Oct.  27, 1837. 

Mrs.  Elizab°th  L.  Carter,  near  Grovo- 
lon,  Prince  William  county,  Virginia, 
In  the  'National  Intelligencer,"  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  June  10, 1837. 


the  whip." 

"  Two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  reward,  for  my  negro  man 
Jim — he  is  much  marked  with  shot  in  his  right  thigh, — the  shot 
entered  on  the  outside,  half  way  between  the  hip  and  knee 
joints." 

"  Brought  to  jail,  John — left  ear  crept." 

''  Ranaway,  the  slave  Ellis — he  has  lost  one  of  his  ears." 


"  Ranaway,  a  negro  man,  Moses — he  has  lost  a  part  of  one  of 
his  cars." 


80 


Punishments — Branding,  Maiming,  Scars. 


Mr.  William  D.  Bnckcls,  Natchoz, 
Mi.  in  the  "  Natchez  Courier,"  July  38, 
1838. 


Mr.  Walter  R.  Eucli.^h,  Monroe  coun- 
ty, Ala.  in  tlic  "  Woliilc  Chronicle," 
Sept.  2,  1837. 

Mr.  James  Saunders,  Grany  Spring, 
Hawkius  county,  Tunn.  in  tlie  '■  ICiios- 
ville  Rcjj'ister,"  June  6,  1838. 

Mr.  Jolin  Jtnkins,  St.  Joseph's,  Flori- 
da, captain  of  the  steamboat  Ellen, 
"Apalaeliicola  Gazette,"  June  7, 1838. 

Mr.  Peter  Hanson,  Lafayette  city.  La., 
In  the  New  Orleans  "  Bee,"  July  28, 
1838. 

BIr.  Orrcn  Ellis,  Geor<reviIle,  Mi.  in 
the  "North  Alabamian,"  Sept.  15,  1337. 

Mr.  Zadock  Sawyer,  Cuthbert,  Ran- 
dolph county,  Georgia,  in  the  "  Milledgc- 
ville  Union,'"  Oct.  9,  1838. 

Mr.  .Abraham  Gray,  Mount  Morino, 
Pike  county,  Ga.  in  the  "  Milledgeville 
Union,"  Oct.  9, 183d. 

S.  B.  Tuston,  jailer,  Adams  county. 
Mi.  in  the  "  Natchez  Courier,"  June 
15,  1833. 

Mr.  Joshua  Antrim,  Nineveh,  War- 
ren county,  Virginia,  in  the  "  Winches- 
ter Virginian,"  July  11,  1837. 

J.  B.  Randall,  jailor.  Marietta,  Cobb 
county,  Ga.,  in  the  "  Southern  Record- 
er," Nov.  6,  183S. 


Mr.  John  N.  Dillahunty,  Woodvillei 
Mi.,  in  the  "  N.  O.  Commercial  Bulle- 
tin," July  21, 1837. 

William  K.  RatclifTe,  sheriff,  Frank- 
.In  county,  Mi.  in  the  "Natchez  Free 
Trader,"  August  23,  1838. 

Mr.  Preston  Halley,  Barnwell,  South 
Carolina,  in  the  '•  Augusta  [Ga.]  Chro- 
nicle," July  27,  1838. 

Mr.  Vi^clroine  H.  Bobbins,  St.Cliarles 
county.  Mo.  in  the  "  St.  Louis  Republi- 
can," June  30, 1833. 

G.  Gourdon  &  Co.  druggists,  ronier  of 
Rampart  and  Hospital  streets,  New  Or- 
leans, in  the  "  Commercial  Bulletin," 
Sept.  18,  1833. 

Mr.  William  Brown,  in  the  "  Grand 
Gulf  Advertiser,"  August  29,  18&8. 

Mr.  J  am  f-s  McDonnell,  T.albot  county, 
Georgia,  in  the  "Columbus  Enquirer," 
Jan.  18,  1838. 

Mr.  John  W.  Cherry,  Marengo  coun- 
ty, Ala.  in  the  "  Mobile  Register,"  June 
15,  1838. 

Mr.  TlioR.  Brown,  Roane  co.  Tenn.  in 
the  "  KnoxviUe  Register,"  Sept.  12, 1838. 

Messrs.  Taylor,  I.awton  <fc  Co., 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in  the 
"  Mercurj-,"  Nov.  1838. 

Mr.  Louis  Schmidt,  Taubonrg,  Sl- 
vaudais.  La.  in  tlic  New  Orleans"  Bee," 
Sept.  5,  1837. 

W.  M.  Whitehead,  Natchez,  in  the 
"  New  Orleans  Bulletin,"  July  21, 1837. 

Mr.  Conrad  Salvo,  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  in  tlic  "  Mercury,  August  10, 
tS37. 


"  Taken  up,  a  negro  man — is  very  much  scarred  about  the  face 
and  body,  and  has  the  left  ear  bit  off." 

"  Ranaway,  my  slave  Lewis — he  has  lost  a  piece  of  one  ear, 
and  a  jiart  of  one  of  his  fingers,  a  part  of  one  of  his  toes  is  also 
lost." 

"  Ranaway,  a  black  girl  named  Mary — has  a  scar  on  her  check, 
and  the  end  of  one  of  her  toes  cut  off." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negro  boy  Cassar — he  has  but  one  eye." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negress  Martha — she  has  lost  her  right  eye.'' 

"  Ranaway,  George — has  had  the  lower  part  of  one  of  his  ears 
bit  off." 

"Ranaway,  my  negro  Tom — has  a  piece  bit  off  the  top  of  his 
right  ear,  and  his  little  finger  is  stiff." 

"  Ranaway,  my  mulatto  woman  Judy — she  has  had  her  right 
arm  broke." 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man  named  Bill — has  had 
the  thumb  of  his  left  hand  split." 

"  Ranaway,  a  mulatto  man  named  Joe — his  fingers  on  the  left 
hand  are  partly  amputated." 

"  Lodged  in  jail,  a  negro  man  named  Jupiter — is  very  lame  in 
his  left  hip,  so  that  he  can  hardly  walk — has  lost  a  joint  of  the 
middle  finger  of  his  left  hand." 

"  Ranaway,  Bill — has  a  scar  over  one  eye,  also  one  on  his  leg, 
from  the  hite  of  a  dog — has  a  burn  on  his  buttock,  from  a  piece  of 
hot  iron  in  shape  of  a  T." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  named  Mike — his  left  ear  off." 

"  Ranaway,  my  negro  man  Levi — his  left  hand  has  been  burnt, 
and  I  think  the  end  of  his  fore  finger  is  off." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  named  Washington — has  lost  apart  of  his 
middle  finger  and  the  end  of  his  little  finger." 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  named  David  Drier — has  two  toes  cut." 

''  Ranaway,  Edmund — has  a  scar  on  his  right  temple,  and 
under  his  right  eye,  and  holes  in  both  ears." 

"  Runaway,  a  negro  boy  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old — has  a 
scar  on  his  left  cheek  from  the  bite  of  a  dog." 

"  Fift}'  dollars  reward,  for  my  negro  man  John — he  has  a  con- 
siderable scar' on  his  throat,  done  with  a  knife." 

''  Twenty-five  dollars  reward,  for  my  man  John — the  <//>of  his 
nose  is  bit  off." 

''  Ranaway,  a  negro  fellow  called  Hover — has  a  cut  above  the 
right  eye." 

"  Ranaway,  the  negro  man  Hardy — has  a  scar  on  the  upper 
lip,  and  another  made  with  a  knife  on  his  neck." 

"  Ranaway,  Henry — has  half  of  one  ear  bit  off." 

"  Ranaway,  my  negro  man  Jacob — he  has  but  one  cyeT 


PMnw/tments— Branding,  Maiming,  Scars.  81 

William  Baker,  jailf>r,  Shelby  county,  „                 ,^,        •     /r    ^  t^     c    t  ■       ,.  >, 

\ia.,  in  ilie  "  Montfjomery  (Ala.)  Ad-  "  Committed  to  lail,  Ben— his  left  thumb  off  zi  the  hrst  joint." 
V.  rtiser,"  Oct.  5,  1838. 

Mr.  S.  N.  Hitc,  Camp  street,  New  Or-  "  Twenty-five  dollars  reward  for  the  negro  slave  Sally-walks 

loans, in  the  "Bee,''  Ftb.  19, 1S3*>.  as  though  crippled  in  the  back." 

b,S;-MHdi^^"cc^nt.^!^a^';i^  "  Runaway,  a  negro  man  named  Dick-has  a  little  finger  off 

"  Huntsville  Deinocra"t,"  Sept.  8,  1833.  the  right  hand." 

I.fi^uL^'Nc;'S';t°Le'  m'll'  "Ranaway,  the  negro  Patrick-has  hishttlc  finger  of  the  right 

1838.                                     '              '  hand  cut  close  to  the  nana." 

Mr.  Needham  Whitefield,  Aberdeen,  „                   •r-r.-u                 n<j,-                fi,-„)i 

Mi.  ill  the  "  M(  mphis  (TeAn.)  Eaqui-  "  Ranaway,  Joe  Dennis— has  a  small  notch  m  one  of  his  ears." 
ri^r,"  JunelS,  ]83<5. 

Col.  M.  J.  Sheith,  Charleston,  South  „                   tx-   i       i        i     ^   ^i     i-.^i    ^        c            n  ■    c    ^  ■» 

Carolina,    in  ih"  "  Mercury  "  Nov  27  "  Ranaway,  Dick — lias  lost  t/ic  little,  toe  ol  one  oi  his  feet." 
1837.                                      ' 

Mr.    R.   Lancette,  Haywood,   North  "  Escaped,  my  negro  man  Eaton — his  little  finger  of  the  right 

V'"?,''"n',ioc'''°    "Raleigh   Kegii^ier,-  j,and  has  been  6ra^"e." 

Mr.  G.  C.  Kichardson,  Owen  Station,  "  Ranaway,  my  negro  man  named  Top — has  had  one  of  his  legs 

Mo.,  in  liic  St.  Louis  "  Kepublican,"  May  Irohcn  " 
.5,  1838. 

Mr.  E.Han,  La  Grange,  Favettecoun-  „  Ranaway,  negro  boy  Jack— lias  a  small  crop  out   of  his  left 

tv,Tenfi.  ui  the  Gallatin "  t/mon,"  June  ,i                "^         *                                                          i             J              J 

ij,  1837.  ^^''• 

D.  Herrin?,  warden  of  Baltimore  city  "  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man— has  two  scars  on  his 

jail,  in  the  "  Marylander,"  Oct.  6, 1837.  forehead,  and  the  top  oj  his  left  ear  cut  off." 

La'^^n-'r- NSoch^^  Hei'al?  JuTy  "  Stolen,  a  negro  man  named  Winter-has  a  notch  cut  out  of 

•-'1,183S.  the  left  ear,  and  the  mark  oifour  or  five  buck  shot  on  his  legs." 

Mr.  James  Barr,  Amelia  Court  House,  «  Ranaway,  a  negro  man — scar  back  of  his  left  eye,  as  if  from 

Virginia,     in    the  "  Norfolk    Herald,"  n, „  „„,  ^e  „  l„:f,  „°                                         j            j      j  ^ 

Pi'Dt  1-    1838.  ^'^^  ^^^  ^^  a  kniie. 

"  Ranaway,  negro  man  Buck — has  a  very  plain  mark  under 

a^r^n^^^^A^^^r^Z^^  his  ear  on  his  jaw,  about  the  size  of  a  dollar,  having  been  inflrctal 

S.-pt.  21, 1837.  oy  a  knije." 

Mr.  P.  Bayhi,  captain  of  the  poUce,  „  -i-.  ^   •      j     .  ^i      •     i   .^i                  i        tt                  i                   i    , 

Cuburb    Washington,    third    munici-  "  Detained  at  the  jail,  the  negro  boy  Hcrmon — has  a  scar  below 

pality.    New   Orleans,  in  the  "Bee,"  his  left  ear,  from  the  tcOMntZ  of  a  knife." 
Oct.  13, 1837. 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  man  by  the  name   of  John — he  has  a 

Mr.  VViUie  Paterson,  Clinton,  Joiiei  ^    across  his  cheek,  and  one  on  his  risfht  arm,  apparently  done 

ciiunty,  Ga.  in  the "  Danen  Telegraph,"  .,,        ,     -j-  ,,                                                  *>               >     ff            j 

Dec.  5, 1837.     .  with  a  Icmfc" 

Mr.  Samuel  RagIand,Triana,  Madison  «  Ranaway,  Isham— has  a  scar  upon  the  breast  and  upon  the 

county,  Alabama,  in   the  "  liuntsviUe  j      i-      r-          ,i      /.•.--      7       „    '^                                          ^ 

Advocate,"  Dec.  23, 1837.  under  lip,  from  the  bite  of  a  dog." 

iJ'^!'^'^^:^^^[^r^^^'  .  "Ranaway,  a  negro  man-has  .scar  on  his  hip  and  on  his 

July  5, 1838.  breast,  and  two  j  rout  teeth  out." 

C.  W.  Wilkins,  sheriff  Baldwin  Co,  «i  Committed   to  jail,  a  neorro   man,  he   is   crippled  in   the 

Ala.  ill  the  "  Mobile  Advertiser,"  Sept.  -;_],*  i„„  » 

2i;,  1837.  "&'"  '^s- 

Mr.    J.imes  H.    Taylor,    Charleston  "  Absconded,  a    colored   boy,  named   Peter,  lame  in  the  right 

South  Carolina,  iu  the  "  Courier,"  Au-  1      ., 

gust  7,  1837.  "'^• 

N.  M.  0.  Piobinson,  Jailer,  Columbus,  "  Brought  to  jail,  a  negro  man,  his  left  ankle  has  been  broke." 

Georgia,  in  the   "  Columbus   (Ga.)  En- 
quirer," August  2,  1838, 

Mr.    Littlejohn    Rvnes,  Hinds    Co,  "  Ranaway,  a  negro  man  named  Jerry,  has  a  small  piece  cyt 

Mi.  in  the  "  Natchez  Courier,"  August,  ^„^  ^j-  ^/^^  ^^^  ^j  g^^^J^  g^^,y 
17, 1838. 

The   Heirs    of  J.     A.    Alston,   near 

Georgetown,    South    Carolina,  in  the  "  Absconded  a  ncffro  named  Cuffee,   ha.s  lost  one  finger  ;  hue 

•^  Georgetown  [S.C]  Union,"  June  1-,  ^^  .^i^^g.a  leg.- 

A.  S.  Ballinger,  Sheriff,  Johnston  Co,  "  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man  ;  has  a  very  sore  leg." 
North  Carolina,  in  the  "  Raleigh  Stand- 
ard," Oct.  18, 1838. 

Mr. 'PlioraasCrutchfield,  Atkins,  Ten.  "  Ranaway,  my  mulatto  boy  Cy,  has  but   one  hand,    all    the 

in  the  "  Tennessee  Journal,"  Oct.  17,  fino-ers  of  his  riffht  hand  were  burnt  off  when  young." 

1838.  6                       » 

6 


82  Punishments — Branding,  Maiming,  Scars. 

J.  A.  Brown,  jailpr,Orans<>hutir,  s.)uth         "  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  nesrro  named   Bob,  appears  to   be 
Carolina,  in  the "  Charleston  Mercury,"      _„■  „#  j  :     ti        •   u*  i       ,;  >     ff 

'iiiv  ifi'iHrtH  ■*'       cr/wp/eti  m  the  riffht  16!'." 


July  18, 1838 
S.  B.  Turton,  jailer,  Adams  C".  Mis--? 


..     u  XT     u      ^      .     „  „       „,  "  Was  committed  to  iail,  a   negro  man,   has   liis   left  thiffk 

m    the  "  Natchez  Courier,"  Scut.  28,      t     i     „  j      '  b  .'6 

1828.  6rofre." 

"  Mr.   John   TI    Kins,    High  street,  »  Ranawav,  mv  nc?ro  man,  he    has  the    end  of   one    of  his 

Gcoreelown,  ui  the   "  National  Intelh-      c_    „      t      f       .,    ' 
peiicer,"  August  1,  1837.  fingers  broken." 

Mr.  John  B.  Fox,  Vicksburg,  Miss. 
in  the  "  Register,"  March  29,  1837. 


"  Ranaway,  a  yellowish  negro  boy  named  Tom,  has  a  notch 
in  the  back  of  one  of  his  ears." 

''  Will  be  sold  Martha,  aged  nineteen,  has  one  eye  out." 


Messrs.  Fernandez  and  Whiting,  auc- 
tioneers, New  Orleans,  in  the  •'  Bee," 
April  8.1837. 

Mr.  Marshall  Jett,  Farrowsyille  Fan-         "  Ranaway,  negro  manEphraim,  has  a  mark  over  one  of  his 
quier   Co,    V.rs.M.a,  in   the      National  ,     occasioned  b v  a  blow.'' 

IntfcUigencer,"  May  30,183/.  •'      '  0  "^• 

"  Was    committed  a  negro,    calls   himself  Jacob,    has    been 
crippled  in  his  right  leg." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man  Gary,  a  large  scar  on  his 
forehead.''^ 

E.   W.   Jlorris,   sheriff   of  Warren  "  Committed  as  a  runaway,  a  negro  man  .Tack  he  has  several 

County,  in  the  '•  VicUsburg  [Mi.]  Regis-  ^^  ^ns  face." 

ter,"  March  28,  1838. 


P.  B.  Turlon,  jailer  Adams  Co.  Miss. 
in  the  "  Natciios  Courier,"  Oct.  12,  1838. 


John  Ford,  slieriff  of  Mobile  County, 
i:i  the  "  Mississippian,"  Jackson  Mi. 
Pec.  28, 1836. 


Mr.  John  P.  Holcomhe,  in  the  Charles- 
ton Mercury,"  April  17,  1828. 


Mr.  Willis  Tatterson,  in  the  "  Charles- 
ton Mercury,"  December  11,  1837. 


Win.  Magee,  sheriff,  Mobile  Co.  in  the 
Mobile  Register,"  Dec.  27,  1837. 


Mr.  Henry  M.  McGregor,  Prince 
George  County,  Maryland,  in  tlie  "Alex- 
andria [I).  C.]"  Gazette,"  Feb.  G,   1838. 

Green  B  Jourdnn,  Baldwhi  County 
Ga.  in  the  "  Georgia  journal,"  April  18, 
tS37. 


Messrs.  Daniel  and  Goodinan,  New 
Orleans,  in  the  "  N.  O.  Bee,"   Feb.  2.     ^f  j^j^  cheeks. 


"  Absented  himself,  his  negro  man  Ben,  has  scars  on  hie 
throat,  occasioned  by  the  cut  of  a  knife.'' 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  man,  John,  a  scar  across  his  cheek,  and 
one  on  his  right  arm,  apparently  done  with  a  knife." 

"Committed  to  jail,  a  runaway  slave,  Alexander,  a  «rar  on 
his  left  check." 

"  Ranaway,  negro  Phil,  .';car  tnroitgh  the  right  eye  hrow,  part 
of  tlie  middle  toe  on  the  right  foot  cut  off." 

"  Ranaway,  John,  has  a  sc«rr  on  one  of  his  hands  extending 
from  the  wrist  joint  to  the  little  finger,  also  a  scar  on  one  of  his 
legs." 

'  Absconded,  mulatto  slave  Alick,  has   a  large  scar  or>er  one 


Jeremiah  Woodward,  Goochland,  Co. 


200  DOLLARS  REWARD  for  Nelson,  has  a  scar   on  his 


Va.    in  the  "  Richmond    \  a.  Whig,"     forehead  occasioned  by  a  fti/rn,  and  one  on  his  lower  lip  and  one 
'     ■  '   '         '  about  the  knee." 

"  Ranaway,  a   negro   man   and    his   wife,    named    Nat   and 
Samuel  Rawlins,  Gwiiiet  Co.  Ga.  in     PrisciJla,  he  has  a  small  scar  on   his  left  cheek,  two  stiff  fingers 
the    "  Columbus  Sentinel,"    Nov.    29,  i  •      •    i  t  i       j      •*!  ,u  i-        •(■"i 

ij^gg  '  on  his  right  hand  witii  a  running  sore   on  them  ;   his  wife  has   a 

scar  on  her  left  arm,  and  one  upper  tooth  out.'' 


The  reader  perceives  that  we  have  under  this 
head,  as  under  previous  ones,  given  to  the  testi- 
mony of  the  slaveholders  themselves,  under  their 
own  names,   a  precedence  over  that  of  all  other 
witnesses.     We  now  ask  the  reader's  attention 
to  the  testimonies  which  follow.     They  are  en- 
dorsed by  responsible  names — men  who  '  speak 
what  they   know,  and  testify  what   they  have  j 
s(^en' — testimonies  which  show,   that  the  slave- 
holders   who    wrote    the     preceding    advertise- 
ments, describing  the  work  of  their  own  hands,  j 
in  branding  with  hot  irons,  maiming,  mutilating,  | 
cropping,  shooting,  knocking  out  the  teeth  and 
ftyes  of  their  slaves,  breaking  their  bones,  &c., 


have  manifested,  as  far  as  they  have  gone  in  the 
description,  a  commendable  fidelity  to  truth. 

It  is  probable  that  some  of  the  scars  and  maim- 
ings  in  the  preceding  advertisements  were  the 
result  of  accidents  ;  and  some  may  be  the  result 
of  violence  inflicted  by  the  slaves  upon  each 
other.  Without  arguing  that  point,  we  say,  those 
are  the  facts  ;  whoever  reads  and  ponders  them, 
will  need  no  argument  to  convince  him,  that  the 
proposition  which  they  have  been  employed  to 
sustain,  cannot  he  shaken.  Tliat  any  considera- 
ble portion  of  them  were  accidental,  is  totally  im- 
probable, from  the  nature  of  the  case  ;  and  is  in 
most  instances  disproved  by  the  advertisements 


Punishments — Mutilation  of  Teeth. 


83 


themselves.  That  they  have  not  been  produced 
by  assaults  of  the  slaves  upon  each  other,  is  man- 
ifest from  the  fact,  that  injuries  of  that  character 
inflicted  by  the  slaves  upon  each  other,  are,  as  all 
who  are  familiar  with  the  habits  and  condition 
of  slaves  well  know,  exceedingly  rare  ;  and  of 
necessity  must  be  so,  from  the  constant  action 
upon  them  of  the  strono:cst  dissuasives  from  such 
acts  that  can  operate  on  human  nature. 

Advertisements  similar  to  the  preceding  may 
at  any  time  be  gathered  by  scores  from  the  daily 
and  weekly  newspapers  of  the  slave  states.  Be. 
fore  presenting  the  reader  with  Curther  testimony 
in  proof  of  the  proposition  at  the  head  of  this 
part  of  our  subject,  we  remark,  that  some  of  the 
tortures  enumerated  under  this  and  the  preceding 
heads,  are  not  in  all  cases  inflicted  by  slavehold- 
ers as  punishnents,  but  sometimes  merely  as  pre. 
ventives  of  escape,  for  the  greater  security  of 
their  'propertj'.'  Iron  collars,  chains,  &.c.  are 
put  upon  slaves  when  they  are  driven  or  trans- 
ported from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another,  in 
order  to  keep  them  from  running  away.  Similar 
measures  are  aften  resorted  to  upon  plantations. 
When  the  master  or  owner  suspects  a  slave  of 
plotting  an  escape,  an  iron  collar  with  long  '  horns,' 
or  a  bar  of  iron,  or  a  ball  and  chain,  are  often 
fastened  upon  him,  for  the  double  purpose  of  re- 
tarding his  flight,  should  he  attempt  it,  and  of 
serving  as  an  easy  means  of  detection. 

Another  inhuman  method  of  mailcing  slaves, 
so  that  they  may  be  easily  described  and  detected 
when  they  escape,  is  called  cropping.  In  the 
preceding  advertisements,  the   reader  will  per- 


ceive a  number  of  cases,  in  which  the  runaway 
is  described  as  '  cropt,''  or  a  '  notch  cut  in  the 
ear,  or  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the  ear  cut  off,'  &,c. 

Two  years  and  a  half  since,  the  writer  of  thi;> 
saw  a  letter,  then  just  received  by  Mr.  Lcwj.-i 
Tappan,  of  New  York,  containing  a  negro's  ear 
cut  off  close  to  the  head.  The  writer  of  the  let. 
ter,  who  signed  himself  Thomas  Aylethorpe, 
Montgomery,  Alabama,  sent  it  to  Mr.  Tappan  as 
'  a  specimen  of  a  negro's  ears,'  and  desired  him  to 
add  it  to  his  '  collection.' 

Another  method  oi  marking  slaves,  is  by  draw- 
ing out  or  breaking  off  one  or  two  front  teeth — 
commonly  the  upper  ones,  as  the  mark  would  in 
that  case  be  the  more  obvious.  An  instance  of 
this  kind  the  reader  will  recall  in  the  testimony 
of  Sarah  M.  Grimke,  page  30,  and  of  which  she. 
had  personal  knowledge  ;  being  well  acquainted 
both  with  the  inhuman  master,  (a  distinguished 
citizen  of  South  Carolina,)  by  whose  order  tho 
brutal  deed  was  done,  and  with  the  poor  young 
girl  whose  mouth  was  thus  barbarously  mutilated, 
to  furnish  a  convenient  mark  by  which  to  de- 
scribe her  in  case  of  her  elopement,  as  she  had 
frequently  run  away. 

The  case  stated  by  iVliss  G.  serves  to  unravel 
what,  to  one  uninitiated,  seems  quite  a  mystery* : 
i.  e.  the  frequency  with  vrhich,  in  the  advertise- 
ments of  runaway  slaves  published  in  southern 
papers,  they  are  described  as  having  one  or  two 
front  teeth  out.  Scores  of  such  advertisements 
are  in  southern  papers  now  on  our  table.  Wc 
i  will  furnish  the  reader  with  a  dozen  or  two. 


WITNESSES. 

Jesse  Debruhl,  sherifT,  Richland  Dis- 
trict, "  Columbia  (S.  C.)  Telescope," 
Feb.  24, 1838. 

Mr.  John  Hunt,  Blaclc  Water  Bay, 
"  Pensacola  (Ga.1  Gazette,"  October  14, 
1837. 

Mr.  John  Frederick,  Branchville, 
Oran^eburgh  District,  S.  C.  "  Charleston 
[S.  C'.]  Courier,"  June  12,  1837. 

Mr.  Egbert  A.  Raworth,  eight  miles 
west  of  Nashville  on  the  Charlotte  road, 
"  Daily  Republican  Banner,"  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  April  30,  1838. 

Benjamin  Russel,  Deputy  sheriff, 
Bibb  Co.  Ga. "  Macon  ^Ga.)  Telegraph," 
Dec.  25,  1837. 

F.  Wistier,  Master  of  the  Work 
House,  "  Charleston  (S.  0.)  Courier.'" 
Oct.  17,  1837. 

Mr.  S.  Ncyle.  "  Savaimah  (Ga.)  Re- 
publican," July  3,  1837. 

Mr.  John  McMurrain,  near  Columbus, 
"  Georgia  Messenger,"  Aug.  2,  1838. 

Mr.  John  Kennedy,  Stewart  Co.  La. 
"  New  Orleans  Bee,"  April  7, 1837. 

Mr.  A.  J.  Hatchings,  near  Florence, 
Ala.  "  North  Alabamian,"  August  25, 
1838. 


TESTIMONY. 


"  Committed  to  jail,  Ned,  about  25  years  of  age,  has  lost  his 
two  upper  front  teeth." 

"  100  DOLLARS    REWARD,   for  Perry,   one  under  front 
tooth  missing,  aged  23  years." 

10  DOLLARS  REWARD,  for  Mary,  one  or  two  upper  teeth 
out,  about  25  years  old." 

''  Ranaway,  Myal,  23  years  old,  one  of  his  fore  teeth  out.'" 


"  Brought  to  jail  John,  23  years  old,  one  fore  tooth  out." 

"  Committed  to  the  Charleston  Work  House  Tom,  two  of  his 
upper  front  teeth  out,  about  30  years  of  age." 

"  Ranaway  Peter,  has  lost  two   front  teeth  in  the  upper  jaw." 

"  Ranaway,  a  boy  named  Moses,  some  of  his  front  teeth  out. 

"  Ranaway,  Sally,  her  fore  teeth  out." 

"  Ranaway,  George  Winston,  two  of  his  upper  fore  teeth  out 
immediately  in  front." 


^4 


Punishmenis — Mutilation  of  Teeth. 


Mr.  James  Purdan,  33  Coramon  street, 
N.  O.  "  New  Orieaiia  Bee,"  Feb.  13, 
1838. 

Mr.  Rob;'rt  Ciilvfrt,  in  the  '■  Arkan- 
SP.S  State  Gazetto,"  August   23,  1838, 

Mr.  A.  G.  A-  Beazlev,  in  the  Mfm- 
pliis  Gazette,"  March  18,  1338. 


"  Ranaway,  Jackson,  has  lost  one  of  kis  front  teeth." 

"  Ranaway,  Jack,  25  years  old,  has  lost  one  of  fas  fore  teeth.'* 

"Ranaway,  Abraham,  20  or  22  years  of  age,  his  front  teeth 


Mr.  SamuflTowiisend,  in  tjie"  Hunts- 
viUe  [Ala.J  Utmocrat,"  May  24, 1837. 


"  Ranaway,  Dick,  18  or  20  years  of  age,  has  one  front  tooth 
out." 


Mr.  Philip  A.  Dow,  in  the 
Her;Ud,"olMay24,1837. 


•  Virginia         «  Ranaway,  Washington,  about  25  years  of  age,  has  an  upper 
front  tooth  out." 


Mr.  Jolm  Frederick,  in  the  "  Charles- 
ton .McrcuiT,"  August  10,  1837. 


Jrsse  Debnihl,  sherifT  of  Richland 
JJiptriet,  in  the  '•  Cohimbia  [S.  C] 
"Telegraph,"  Sept. 2,  1837. 

M.  F.  W.  Gilbert,  in  the  "  C'olmi-vbns 
tGa.]  Enquirer,"  Oct.  5. 1837. 


.Publisher    of  the  ' 
.■uiy,"  Aug.  31,1838. 


Charleaion  Mer- 


Mr.  Byrd  M.  Grace,  in  the  "  Macon 
[Ga.]  Telegraph,"'  Oct.  16,  1838. 


"50  DOLLARS   REWARD,  for   Mary,  25  or  26  years  old, 
one  or  two  upper  teeth  out." 

"  Committed  to  jail,  Ned,  25  or  26  years  old,  has  lost  his   two 
upper  front  teeth." 

"  50  DOLLARS  REWARD,  for  Prince,  25  or  26  years  old, 
one  or  two  teeth  out  in  front  on  the  upper  jaw," 

"  Ranaway,  Seller  Saunders,  one  fore  tooth  out,  about  22  years 
of  age." 

"  Ranaway,  Warren,  about  25  or  26  years  old,  has  lost  some 
of  his  front  teeth." 


Mr.  George  W.  Barnes,  in  the  "  Mil-  "  Ranaway,  Henry,  about  23  years  old,  has   one  of  his  upper 

IcrigcvilleLGa.]  Journal,"  May  22, 1837.    front  teeth  out."  ^'  '  '  ^ 


D.  Hernne,  Warden  of  Baltimore 
Jail,  in  "  Baltimore  Chronicle,"  Oct.  G, 
1937. 

Mr.  J.  L.  ColboiTi,  in  the  "  Huntsville 
:  Ala.]  Democrat,'"  July  4,  1837. 

Samuel  Ilannan  Jr.  in  the  "  New 
Orleans  Bee,"  Oct.  12,  1838. 


"  Committed  to  jail  Elizabeth  Steward,  17  or  18  years  old,  has 
one  of  her  front  teeth  out."  ji 

"  Ranaway  Liley,  26  years  of  age,  one  fore  tooth  gone." 

"  50  DOLLARS  REWARD,  for  Adolphe,  28  years  old,  two 
of  his  front  teeth  are  missing." 


Were  it  necessary,  we  might  easily  add  to  the 
preceding  list,  hundreds.  The  reader  will  remark 
that  all  the  slaves,  whose  ages  are  given,  are 
young — not  one  has  arrived  at  middle  age  ;  con- 
sequently it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  they  have 
lost  their  teeth  either  from  age  or  decay.  The 
probability  that  their  teeth  were  taken  out  by 
force,  is  increased  by  the  fact  of  their  being/ront 
^f-eth  in  almost  every  case,  and  from  the  fact  that 
the  loss  of  no  otlicr  is  mentioned  in  the  advertise- 
iiicnts.  It  is  well  known  that  the  front  teeth  are 
"lot  generally  the  first  to  fail.  Further,  it  is  noto- 
rious that  the  teeth  of  the  slaves  are  remarkably 
sound  and  serviceable,  that  they  dcca j^  far  less,  and 
at  a  much  later  period  of  life  than  the  teeth  of  the 
wJiilca :  owing  partlj',  no  dotibt,  to  original  con- 
slKution  ;  but  more  probably  to  their  diet,  habits, 
and  mode  of  life. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  horrible  mutilations 
sometimes  sufTered  by  them  in  the  breaking  and 
tearing  out  of  their  teeth,  wc  insert  the  following, 
from  the  New-Orleans  Bee  of  May  31, 1837. 

^10  REWARD.— Ranaway,  Friday,  May  12, 
Julia,  a  negress,  eighteen  or  twenty  years  old. 


She  has  i.ost  her  upper  teeth,  and  the  under 
ones  are  all  broken.  Said  reward  will  be  paid 
to  whoever  will  bring  her  to  her  master,  No.  172 
Barraeks-strect,  or  lodge  her  in  the  jail. 

The  following  is  contained  in  the  same  paper. 
Ranaway,   Nelson,  27  years  old, — "All  his 

TEETH  ARE  MISSING." 

This  advertisement  is  signed  by  "Selfer," 
Faubourg  Marign}'. 

We  now  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  a 
mass  of  testimony  in  support  of  our  general  pro- 
position. 

George  B.  Ripley,  Esq.  of  Norwich,  Connec- 
ticut, has  furnished  the  iollowing  statement,  in  a 
letter  dated  Dee.  12,  1838. 

"  GcRDON  Chapman,  Esq.,  a  respectable  mer- 
chant of  our  city,  one  of  our  county  commission- 
ers,— last  spring  a  member  of  our  state  legisla- 
ture,— and  whose  character  for  veracity  is  above 
suspicion,  about  a  year  since  visited  the  county  of 
Nanscmond,  "Virginia,  for  the  purpose  of  buying 
a  cargo  of  corn.    He  purchased  a  large  quantity 

of  Mr.   ,  vi'ith  whose  family  he  spent   a 

week  or  ten  days  ;  after  he  returned,  he  related  to 
mc  and  several  other  citizens  the  following  facts. 


Pumshmenls — Cruelties. 


85 


In  order  to  prepare  the  corn  for  market  by  the 
time  agreed  upon,  the  slaves  were  worked  as  hard 
as  they  would  bear,  from  daybreak  until  9  or  10 
o'clock  at  night.  They  were  called  diroctlj'  from 
their  bunks  in  the  morning  to  their  work,  without 
a  morsel  of  food  until  noon,  when  they  took  their 
breakfast  and  dinner,  consisting  of  bacon  and  corn 
broad.  The  quantity  of  meat  was  not  one  tenth 
of  what  the  same  number  of  northern  laborers 
usually  liave  at  a  meal.  They  were  allowed  but 
fifteen  minutes  to  take  this  meal,  at  the  expiration 
of  this  time  the  horn  was  blown.  The  rigor  with 
which  they  enforce  punctuality  to  its  call,  may  be 
imagined  t'rom  the  fact,  that  a  little  boy  onl}'  nine 
years  old  was  whipped  so  severely  by  the  driver, 
that  in  many  places  the  whip  cut  through  his 
clothes  (which  were  of  cotton,)  for  tardiness  of 
not  over  three  minutes.  They  then  worked  with- 
out  intermission  imtil  9  or  10  at  night;  after 
wliich  they  prepared  and  ate  their  second  meal, 
as  scant}^  as  the  first.  An  aged  slave,  who  was 
remarkable  for  his  industry  and  fidelity,  was  work- 
ing with  all  his  might  on  the  threshing  floor ; 
amidst  tlie  clatter  of  the  shelling  and  winnowing 
machines  the  master  spoke  to  him,  but  he  did  not 
hear ;  he  presently  gave  him  several  severe  cuts 
with  tlie  rav/  hide,  saying,  at  the  same  time, 
'damn  you,  if  you  cannot  hoar  I'll  see  if  you  can 
feel.'  One  morning  the  master  rose  from  break- 
fast and  whipped  most  crucli}',  with  a  raw  hide,  a 
nice  girl  who  was  waiting  on  the  table,  for  not 
opening  a  n'est  window  when  he  had  told  hor  to 
oi)en  an  east  one.  The  number  of  slaves  was  only 
forty,  and  yet  the  lash  was  in  constant  use.  ,The 
bodies  of  all  of  them  were  literally  covered  with 
old  scars. 

"  Not  one  of  the  slaves  attended  church  on  the 
Sabbatli.  The  social  relations  were  scarcely  re- 
cognised among  them,  and  they  lived  in  a  stale 
of  promiscuous  concubinage.  The  master  said 
ho  took  pains  to  breed  from  his  best  stock — the 
whiter  the  progeny  the  higher  they  would  sell  for 
house  servants.  When  asked  by  Mr.  C.  if  he  did 
not  fear  his  slaves  would  rim  away  if  he  whipped 
them  so  much,  he  replied,  they  know  too  well 
what  they  must  suffer  if  they  are  taken — and  then 
said,  '  I'll  tell  you  how  I  treat  my  runaway  nig. 
gcrs.  I  had  a  big  nigger  that  ran  away  the  second 
time  ;  as  soon  as  I  got  track  of  him  I  took  three 
good  fellows  and  went  in  pursuit,  and  found  him 
in  the  night,  sonic  miles  distant,  in  a  corn-house; 
we  took  him  and  ironed  him  hand  and  foot,  and 
carted  him  home.  The  next  morning  we  tied  him 
to  a  tree,  and  whipped  him  until  there  was  not  a 
sound  place  on  his  back,  I  thcji  tied  his  ankles 
and  hoisted  him  up  to  a  limb — feet  up  and  head 
down — wo  then  whipped  him,  until  the  damned 
nigger  smoked  so  that  I  thought  he  would  take 
fire  and  burn  up.  We  then  took  him  dov.'n  ;  and 
to  make  sure  that  he  should  not  run  away  the 
third  time.  I  run  my  knife  in  back  of  the  ankles, 
and  cut  off  the  large  cords, — and  tlien  I  ought  to 
have  put  some  lead  into  the  wounds,  but  I  for- 
got it.' 

"  The  truth  of  the  above  is  from  unquestionable 
authority  ;  and  you  may  publish  or  suppress  it,  as 
shall  best  subserve  the  cause  of  God  and  hu- 
manity." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Stephen  Sewall, 


Esq.,  Winthrop,  Maine,  dated  Jan.  12th,  18^9. 
Mr.  S.  is  a  member  of  the  Congregational  churcli 
in  Winthrop,  and  late  agent  of  the  Winthrop 
Manufacturing  company. 

"  Being  somewhat  acquainted  with  slavery,  by  a 
residence  of  about  five  years  in  Alabama,  and 
having  witnessed  many  acts  of  slaveholding  cru- 
elty, I  will  mention  one  or  two  tliat  came  under 
jny  eye  ;  and  one  of  excessive  cruelty  mcntioneti 
to  mc  at  the  time,  by  the  gentleman  (now  dead, ) 
that  interfered  in  behalf  of  the  slave. 

"  I  was  witness  to  such  cruellies  by  an  over- 
seer to  a  slave,  that  he  twice  attempted  to  drown 
himself,  to  get  out  of  his  power:  this  was  on  ;i 
raft  of  staves,  in  the  Mobile  river.  I  saw  an  owner 
take  his  runaway  slave,  tic  a  rope  round  him,  then 
got  on  his  horse,  give  the  slave  and  liorsc  a  cut 
with  the  whip,  and  run  the  poor  creature  barefoot, 
ed,  very  fast,  over  rough  ground,  where  small  black 
jack  oaks  had  been  cut  up,  leaving  the  shar|» 
stumps,  on  which  the  slave  would  frequently  fall : 
then  the  master  would  drag  him  as  long  as  hr 
could  himself  hold  out ;  tlicn  stop,  and  whip  him 
up  on  his  feet  again — then  proceed  as  before. 
This  continued  until  he  got  out  of  my  sight, 
which  was  about  half  a  mile.  But  what  further 
cruelties  this  wretched  man,  (whose  passion  was 
so  excited  that  he  could  scarcely  utter  a  word 
when  he  took  the  slave  into  his  own  power,)  in- 
flicted upon  his  poor  victim,  tlic  day  of  judgment 
will  unfold. 

"  I  have  seen  slaves  severely  whipped  on  plant  a . 
tions,  but  thus  is  an  evert/  day  occurrence,  and 
comes  under  the  head  of  general  treatment. 

"  I  have  known  the  case  of  a  husband  com- 
pelled to  whip  his  wife.  This  I  did  not  witness, 
though  not  two  rods  from  the  cabin   at  the  time. 

"  I  will  now  mention  the  case  of  cruelty  before 
referred  to.  In  1820  or  21,  while  the  public  vi'orks 
were  going  forward  on  Dauphin  Island,  Mobile 
Bay,  a  contractor,  engaged  on  the  works,  beat 
one  of  his  slaves  so  severely  that  the  poor  crea- 
ture had  no  longer  power  to  writhe  under  his  suf- 
fering: he  then  took  out  his  knife,  and  began  to 
cut  his  flesh  in  strips,  from  his  hips  down.  At 
tliis  moment,  the  gentleman  referred  to,  who  was 
also  a  contractor,  shocked  at  such  inhumanity, 
stepped  forward,  between  the  wretch  and  his  vic- 
tim, and  exclaimed,  '  If  you  touch  that  slave 
again  you  do  it  at  the  peril  of  your  life."  The 
slaveholder  raved  at  him  for  interfering  between 
him  and  his  slave  ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  drop  his 
victim,  fearing  the  arm  of  my  friend — whose  sta- 
ture and  physical  powers  were  extraordinary." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Mary  Cowles, 
a  member  of  the  Protestant  Church  at  Geneva, 
Ashtabula  county,  Ohio,  dated  12th,  mo.  18th, 
1838.  Mrs.  Cowles  is  a  daughter  of  Mr.  James 
Colwell  of  Brook  county,  Virginia,  near  West 
Liberty. 

"  In  the  year  1809,  I  think,  when  I  was  twenty- 
one  years  old,  a  man  in  the  vicinity  where  I  resid- 
ed, in  Brooke  co.  Va.  near  West  Liberty,  by  the 
name  of  Morgan,  had  a  little  slave  girl  about  six 
years  old,  who  had  a  habit  or  rather  a  natural  infir- 
mity common  to  children  of  that  age.  On  this  ac- 
comit  her  master  and  mistress  would  pinch  her  ears 


86 


Punishnients — Cruelties. 


\*'itli  hot  f  ong-n,  and  throw  hot  embers  on  her  legs. 
Net  bcinfr  able  to  accomplish  their  object  by  these 
means,  tlicy  at  last  resorted  to  a  method  too  in- 
delicate,  and  too  horrible  to  describe  in  detail. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  it  soon  put  an  end  to  her  life  in 
the  most  cxernciatinjr  manner.  If  further  testi- 
mony to  authenticate  what  I  have  stated  is  ne- 
cessary, I  refer  you  to  Dr.  Robert  Mitchcl  who 
then  resided  in  the  vicinity,  but  now  lives  at  In- 
diana, Pennsylvania,  above  Pittsburgh." 

Mary  Cowles. 
Testimony  of  Willfam  Laud,  Esq.,  now  of 
Minot,  Maine,  formerly  a  slaveholder  in  Florida. 
Mr.  Ladd  is  nov/  the  President  of  the  American 
Peace  Society.  In  a  letter  dated  November 
29,  1838,  Mr.  Ladd  says  : 

"  While  I  lived  in  Florida  I  knew  a  slaveholder 
whose  name  was  Hutchinson,  he  had  been  a 
preacher  and  a  member  of  the  Senate  of  Georgia. 
He  told  mc  that  he  dared  not  keep  a  gun  in 
his  house,  because  he  was  so  passionate  ;  and  that 
he  had  been  the  death  of  three  or  four  men.  I  un- 
derstood him  to  mean  slaves.  One  of  his  slaves,  a 
girl,  once  came  to  my  house.  She  had  run  away 
from  him  at  Indian  river.  The  cords  of  one  of 
iier  hands  were  so  much  contracted  that  her  hand 
was  useless.  It  was  said  that  he  had  thrust  her 
hand  into  the  fire  while  he  was  in  a  fit  of  passion, 
and  held  it  there,  and  this  was  the  effect.  My 
wife  had  hid  the  girl,  when  Hutchinson  came  for 
her.  Out  of  compassion  for  the  poor  slave,  I  of- 
fered him  more  than  she  was  worth,  which  here- 
fused.  We  afterward  let  the  girl  escape,  and  I  do 
not  knov/  what  became  of  her,  but  I  believe  he 
never  got  her  again.  It  was  currently  reported 
of  Hutchinson,  that  he  once  knocked  down  a 
new  negro  (one  recently  from  Africa)  who  was 
clearing  up  land,  and  who  complained  of  the  cold, 
as  it  was  mid-vv'inter.  The  slave  was  stunned 
with  the  blow.  Hutchinson,  supposing  he  had 
the  '  sulks,'  applied  fire  to  the  side  of  the  slave 
until  it  was  so  roasted  that  he  said  the  slave  was 
not  worth  curing,  and  ordered  the  other  slaves  to 
pile  on  brush,  and  he  was  consumed. 

"  A  min-der  occurred  at  the  settlement,  (Mus. 
quite)  while  I  lived  there.  An  overseer  from  Gcor- 
jfia,  who  was  employed  by  a  Mr.  Cormick,  in  a 
nt  of  jealousy  shot  a  slave  of  Samuel  Williams, 
the  owner  of  the  next  plantation.  He  was  ap- 
prehended, but  afterward  suffered  to  escape. 
This  man  told  me  that  he  had  rather  whip  a  ne- 
gro than  sit  down  to  the  best  dinner.  This  man 
had,  near  his  house,  a  contrivance  like  that  which 
is  used  in  armies  where  soldiers  are  punished 
with  the  picket ;  by  this  the  slave  was  drawn  up 
from  the  earth,  by  a  cord  passing  round  his  wrists, 
so  that  his  feet  could  just  touch  the  ground.  It 
somewhat  resembled  a  New  England  well  sweep, 
and  was  used  when  the  slaves  were  flogged. 

"  The  treatment  of  slaves  at  Musquito  I  consi- 
der much  milder  than  that  which  I  have  witness- 
ed in  the  United  States.  Florida  was  under  the 
Spanish  government  while  I  lived  there.  There 
Were  about  fifteen  or  twenty  plantations  at  Mus- 
quito. I  have  an  indistinct  recollection  of  four  or 
five  slaves  dying  of  ihc  cold  in  Amelia  Island. 
They  belonged  to  Mr.  Runer  of  Musquito.  The 
compensation  of  the  overseers  was  a  certain  por- 
tion of  the  crop." 


Gerrit  Smith,  Esq.  of  Peterboro,  in  a  letter, 
dated  Dec.   1.5,  1838,  cays  : 

"  I  have  just  been  conversing  with  an  inhabi- 
tant of  this  town,  on  the  subject  of  the  cruelties 
of  slavery.  My  neighbors  inform  mc  that  he  is 
a  man  of  veracity.  Thj  candid  manner  of  his 
communication  utterly  forbade  the  suspicion  that 
he  was  attempting  to  deceive  me. 

"  My  informant  says  that  he  resided  in  Louis- 
iana and  Alabama  during  a  great  part  of  the 
years  1819  and  1820  : — that  he  frequently  saw 
slaves  whipped,  never  saw  any  killed  ;  but  often 
heard  of  their  being  killed : — that  in  several  in- 
stances he  had  seen  a  slave  receive,  in  the  space 
of  two  hours,  five  hundred  lashes — each  stroke 
drawing  blood.  He  adds  that  this  severe  whip- 
ping was  always  followed  by  the  application  of 
strong  brine  to  the  lacerated  parts- 

"  My  informant  further  says,  that  in  the  spring 
of  1819,  he  steered  a  boat  from  Louisville  to  New 
Orleans.  Whilst  stopping  at  a  plantation  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  between  Natchez  and 
New  Orleans,  for  the  purpose  of  making  sale  of 
some  of  the  articles  with  which  the  boat  was 
freighted,  he  and  his  fellow  boatmen  saw  a  shock- 
ingly cruel  punishment  inflicted  on  a  couple  of 
slaves  for  the  repeated  offence  of  running  away. 
Straw  v.-as  spread  over  the  whole  of  their  backs, 
and,  after  buing  fastened  by  a  band  of  the  same 
material,  was  ignited,  and  left  to  burn,  until  en- 
tirely consumed.  The  agonies  and  screams  of 
the  sufferers  he  can  never  forget." 

D«  David  Nelson,  late  president  of  Marion 
College,  Missouri,  a  native  of  Tennessee,  and  till 
forty  years  old  a  slaveholder,  said  in  an  Anti- 
Slavery  address  at  Northampton,  Mass,  Jan. 
1839— 

"  I  have  not  attempted  to  harrow  your  feelings 
v^jith  stories  of  cruelty.  I  will,  however,  mention 
one  or  two  among  the  many  incidents  that  came 
under  my  observation  as  family  physician.  I  was 
one  day  dressing  a  blister,  and  the  mistress  of  the 
house  sent  a  little  black  girl  into  tlic  kitchen  to 
bring  mo  some  warm  water.  She  pi-obably  mis- 
took her  message  ;  for  she  returned  with  a  bowl 
full  of  boiling  water;  which  her  mistress  no 
sooner  perceived,  than  she  thrust  her  hand  into 
it,  and  held  it  there  till  it  was  half  cooked." 

Mr.  Henry  H.  Loomis,  a  member  of  the  Prcs. 
byterian  Theological  Seminary  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  says,  in  a  recent  letter — 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hart,  recently  my  pastor,  ii 
Otsego  county.  New  York,  and  who  has  spo^l 
some  time  at  the  south  as  a  teacher,  slated  1  > 
mc  that  in  the  neighborhood  in  which  he  reside  .1 
a  slave  was  set  to  watch  a  turnip  patch  near  an 
academy,  in  order  to  keep  off  the  boys  who  occa- 
sionally trespassed  on  it.  Attempting  to  repeat  the 
trespass  in  presence  of  the  slave,  they  were  told 
that  his  '  master  forbad  it.'  At  this  the  boys 
were  enraged,  and  hurled  brickbats  at  the  slave 
until  his  face  and  other  parts  were  much  injured 
and  wounded — but  nothing  was  said  or  done 
about  it  as  an  injury  to  the  slave. 

"  He  also  said,  that  a  slave  from  the  same  ncisrh. 
borhood  was  found  out  in  the  vi'oods,  witii  his 
arms  and  legs  burned  almost  to  a  cinder,  up  as 


">   . 


Punishments — Cruelties. 


87 


far  as  the  clbcw  avid  knee  joints;  and  there  ap- 
jicared  lo  bo  but  httle  more  said  or  thought  about 
it  than  if  he  liad  been  a  brute.  It  was  supposed 
that  his  master  was  the  cause  of  it — making  him 
an  example  of  punishment  to  the  rest  of  the 
gang  !" 

The  following  is  an  extract  of  a  letter  dated 
March  5,  1839,  from  Mr.  John  Clarke,  a  highly 
respected  citizen  cf  Scriba,  Oswego  county,  New 
York,  and  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 

The  '  Mrs.  Turner'  spoken  of  in  Mr.  C.'s  let- 
ter, is  the  wife  of  Hon.  Fielding  S.  Turner,  who 
in  1803  resided  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  and 
was  the  attorney  for  the  Commonwealth.  Soon 
after  that,  he  removed  to  New  Orleans,  and  was 
for  many  years  Judge  of  the  Criminal  Court  of 
that  city.  Having  amassed  an  immense  fortune, 
he  returned  to  Lexington  a  few  years  since,  and 
still  resides  there.  Mr.  C.  the  writer,  spent  the 
winter  of  1836-7  in  Lexington.     He  says, 

"  Yours  of  the  27th  ult.  is  received,  and  I  has- 
ten to  state  the  facts  which  came  to  my  know- 
ledge while  in  Lexington,  respecting  the  occur- 
rences about  which  you  inquire.  Mrs.  Turner 
was  originally  a  Boston  lady.  She  is  from  35  to 
40  years  of  age,  and  the  wife  of  Judge  Turner, 
formerly  of  New  Orleans,  and  worth  a  large 
fortune  in  slaves  and  plantations.  I  repeatedly 
heard,  while  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  during  the 
winter  of  1836-7,  of  the  wanton  cruelty  prac- 
tised by  this  woman  upon  her  slaves,  and  that 
she  had  caused  several  to  be  whipped  to  death; 
but  I  never  heard  that  she  was  suspected  of 
being  deranged,  otherwise  than  by  the  indulgence 
of  an  ungoverncd  temper,  until  I  heard  that  her 
husband  was  attempting  to  incarcerate  her  in 
the  Lunatic  Asylum.  The  citizens  of  Lexing- 
ton, believing  the  charge  to  be  a  false  one,  rose 
and  prevented  the  accomplishment  for  a  time, 
until,  lulled  by  the  fair  promises  of  his  friends,  they 
left  his  domicil,  and  in  the  dead  of  night  she  was 
taken  by  force,  and  conveyed  to  the  asylum. 
This  proceeding  being  judged  illegal  by  her 
friends,  a  suit  was  instituted  to  liberate  her.  I 
heard  the  testimony  on  the  trial,  which  related 
cnly  to  proceedings  had  in  order  to  getting  her 
admitted  into  the  asylum  ;  and  no  facts  came  out 
relative  to  her  treatment  of  her  slaves,  other  than 
of  a  general  character. 

"  Some  days  after  the  above  trial,  (which  by 
the  way  did  not  come  to  an  ultimate  decision, 
as  I  believe)  I  was  present  in  my  brother's 
office,  when  Judge  Turner,  in  a  long  conversa- 
tion with  my  brother  on  the  subject  of  his  trials 
with  his  wife,  said,  '  That  woman  has  been  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  death  of  six  of  my  ser- 
vants, by  her  srrerities.' 

"  I  was  repeatedly  told,  while  I  was  there,  that 
she  drove  a  colored  boy  from  the  second  story 
window,  a  distance  of  15  to  18  feet,  on  to  the 
pavement,  which  made  him  a  cripple  for  a  time. 

"  I  heard  the  trial  of  a  man  for  the  murder  of  his 
slave,  by  whipping,  where  the  evidence  was  to 
my  mind  perfectly  conclusive  of  his  guilt ;  but 
the  jury  were  two  of  them  for  convicting  him  of 
manslaughter,  and  the  rest  for  acquitting  him ; 


and  as  they  could  not  agree  v/ere  discharged — and 
on  a  subsequent  trial,  as  I  learned  by  the  papers, 
the  culprit  was  acquitted." 

Rev.  Thomas  Savage,  of  Bedford,  New  Hamp- 
shire, in  a  recent  letter,  states  the  following  fact : 

"  The  following  circumstance  was  related  to 
me  last  summer,  by  my  brother,  now  residing  as 
a  physician,  at  Rodney,  Mississippi ;  and  who, 
though  a  pro-slavery  man,  spoke  of  it  in  terms  of 
reprobation,  as  an  act  of  capricious,  wanton  cru- 
elty. The  planter  who  was  the  actor  in  it  I  my- 
self knew ;  and  the  whole  transaction  is  so  cha- 
racteristic of  the  man,  that,  independent  of  the 
strong  authority  I  have,  I  should  entertain  but 
little  doubt  of  its  authenticity.  He  is  a  wealthy 
planter,  residing  near  Natchez,  eccentric,  capri- 
cious and  intemperate.  On  one  occasion  he  in- 
vited a  number  of  guests  to  an  elegant  enter- 
tainment, prepared  in  the  true  style  of  southern 
luxury.  From  some  cause,  none  of  the  guests 
appeared.  In  a  moody  humor,  and  under  the 
influence,  probably,  of  mortified  pride,  he  ordered 
the  overseer  to  call  the  people  (a  term  by  whicli 
the  field  hands  are  generally  designated,)  on  to 
the  piazza.  The  order  was  obeyed,  and  the 
people  came.  '  Now,'  said  he,  '  have  them  seat- 
ed at  the  table.  Accordingly  they  were  seated  at 
the  well-furnished,  glittering  table,  while  he  and 
his  overseer  waited  on  them,  and  helped  them  to 
the  various  dainties  of  the  feast.  '  Now,'  said  he, 
after  a  while,  raising  his  voice,  '  take  these  ras- 
cals, and  give  them  twenty  lashes  a  piece.  I'll 
show  them  how  to  eat  at  my  table.'  The  over- 
seer, in  relating  it,  said  he  had  to  comply,  thougli 
reluctantly,  with  this  brutal  command." 

Mr.  Henry  P.  Thompson,  a  native  and  still  a 
resident  of  Nicholasville,  Kentucky,  made  the 
following  statement  at  a  public  meeting  in  Lane 
Seminary,  Ohio,  in  1833.  He  was  at  that  time 
a  slaveholder. 

"  Cruelties,  said  he,  are  so  common^  I  hardly 
know  what  to  relate.  But  one  fact  occurs  to  me 
just  at  this  time,  th.at  happened  in  the  village 
where  I  live.  The  circumstances  are  these.  A 
colered  man,  a  slave,  ran  away.  As  he  was 
crossing  Kentucky  river,  a  white  man,  who  sus- 
pected him,  attempted  to  stop  him.  The  negro 
resisted.  The  white  man  procured  help,  and 
finally  succeeded  in  securing  him.  He  then 
wreaked  his  vengeance  on  iiim  for  resisting — 
flogging  him  till  he  was  not  able  to  walk.  They 
then  put  him  on  a  horse,  and  came  on  with  him 
ten  miles  to  Nicholasville.  When  they  entered 
the  village,  it  was  noticed  that  he  sat  upon  his 
horse  like  a  drunken  man.  It  was  a  very  hot 
day  ;  and  whilst  they  were  taking  some  refresh- 
ment, the  negro  sat  down  upon  the  ground,  under 
the  shade.  When  they  ordered  him  to  go,  he 
made  several  efforts  before  he  could  get  up;  and 
when  he  attempted  to  mount  the  horse,  his 
strength  was  entirely  insufficient.  One  of  the 
men  struck  him,  and  with  an  oath  ordered  him  to 
get  on  the  horse  without  any  more  fuss.  The 
negro  staggered  back  a  few  steps,  fell  down,  and 
died.  I  do  Cot  know  that  any  notice  was  ever 
taken  of  it." 

Rev.  Coleman  S.  Hodgks,  a  native   and  still 


Punishments — Cruelties. 


a  resident  of  Western  Virginia,  gave  the  follow- 
ing testimony  at  the  same  meeting. 

"  I  have  frequently  seen  the  mistress  of  a  fam- 
ily in  Virginia,  wilii  whom  I  was  well  aequaint- 
cd,  beat  the  woman  who  performed  the  kitehen 
work,  witii  a  stick  two  feet  and  a  half  long,  and 
nearly  as  thick  as  my  wrist ;  striking  her  over 
the  head,  and  across  the  small  of  the  back,  as 
she  was  bent  over  at  her  work,  with  as  much 
spite  as  you  would  a  snake,  and  for  what  I  should 
consider  no  offence  at  all.  There  lived  in  this 
same  family  a  young  man,  a  slave,  who  was  in 
the  habit  of  running  away.  He  returned  one 
time  after  a  week's  absence.  The  master  took 
him  into  the  barn,  stripped  him  entirely  naked, 
tied  him  up  by  his  hands  so  high  that  he  could 
not  reach  the  floor,  tied  his  feet  together,  and  put 
a  small  rail  between  his  legs,  so  that  he  could  not 
avoid  the  blows,  and  commenced  whipping  him. 
He  told  me  that  he  gave  him  five  hundred  lashes. 
At  any  rate,  he  was  covered  with  woimds  from 
head  to  foot.  Not  a  place  as  big  as  my  hand  but 
what  was  cut.  Such  things  as  these  are  per- 
fectly common  all  over  Virginia  ;  at  least  so  far 
as  I  am  acquainted.  Generally,  planters  avoid 
punishing  their  slaves  before  strangers." 

Mr.  Calvin  H.  Tate,  of  Missouri,  whose  father 
and  brother  were  slaveholders,  related  the  fol- 
lowing at  the  eanic  meeting.  The  plantation  on 
v/hich  it  occurred,  was  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  his  father's. 

"  A  young  woman,  who  was  generally  very 
badly  treated,  after  receiving  a  more  severe  whi)}' 
ping  than  usual,  ran  away.  In  a  few  daj's  she 
came  back,  and  was  sent  into  the  field  to  work. 
At  this  time  the  garment  next  her  skin  was  stiff 
like  a  scab,  from  the  running  of  the  sores  made 
by  the  whipping.  Towards  night,  she  told  her 
master  that  she  was  sick,  and  wished  to  go  to 
the  house.  She  went,  and  as  soon  as  she  reach- 
ed it.  laid  down  on  the  floor  exhausted.  The 
mistress  asked  her  what  the  matter  was  ?  She 
made  no  reply.  She  asked  again  ;  but  received 
no  answer.  '  I'll  sec, 'said  she,  '  if  I  can't  make 
you  speak.'  So  taking  the  tongs,  she  heated 
them  red  hot,  and  put  tlicm  upon  the  bottoms  of 
her  feet ;  then  upon  her  legs  and  body  ;  and, 
finally,  in  a  rage,  took  hold  of  her  throat  This 
had  the  desired  effect.  The  poor  girl  faintly 
whispered,  •  Oh,  misse,  don't — I  am  most  gone  ;' 
and  expired." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Rev.  C.  S.  Renshaw, 
pastor  of  tlie  Congregational  Church,  Quincy, 
Illinois. 

"Judge  Mcnzies  of  Boone  county,  Kentucky, 
an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  a  slave, 
holder,  told  me  that  lie  knrw  some  overseers  in 
the  tobacco  growing  region  of  Virginia,  who,  to 
make  their  slaves  careful  in  picking  the  tobacco, 
that  is  taking  the  worms  off,  (you  know  what  a 
loathsome  thing  the  tobacco  worm  is)  would 
make  them  eat  some  of  the  worms,  and  othera 
who  made  them  eat  every  worm  they  missed  in 
l)icking." 

"  Mrs.  Nancy  Judd,  a  member  of  the  Non- 
Conformist  Church  in   Osnaburg,  Stark  county, 


Ohio,  and  formerly  a  resident  of  Kentucky,  testi- 
fies that  she  knew  a  slaveholder, 

"  Mr.  Brubeeker,  who  had  a  number  of  slaves, 
among  whom  was  one  who  would  frequently 
avoid  labor  by  hiding  himself;  for  which  ho 
would  get  severe  floggings  without  the  desired  ef- 
fect, and  that  at  last  Mr.  B.  would  tie  large  cats 
on  his  naked  body  and  whip  them  to  make  them 
tear  his  back,  in  order  to  break  liim  of  his  habit  of 
hiding." 

Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  minister  of  the  M> 
thodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Marlborough,  Mas 
sachusetts,  says  : 

"  Some,  when  other  modes  of  punishment  will 
not  subdue  them,  cat-haul  them  ;  that  is,  take  a  cat 
by  the  nap  of  the  neck  and  tail,  or  by  its  hind 
legs,  and  drag  the  claws  across  the  back  until 
satisfied  ;  this  kind  of  punishment,  as  1  have  un- 
derstood, poisons  the  flesh  much  worse  than  the 
whip,  and  is  more  dreaded  by  the  slave." 

Rev.  AnEL  Brown,  Jr.  late  pastor  of  the  first 
Baptist  Church,  Beaver,  Pennsylvania,  in  a  com- 
munication to  Rev.  C.  P.  Grosvenor,  Editor  of 
the  Christian  Reflector,  says : 

"  I  almost  daily  see  the  poor  heart-broken  slave 
making  his  way  to  a  land  of  freedom.  A  short 
time  since,  I  saw  a  noble,  pious,  distressed,  spirit- 
crushed  slave,  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church, 
escaping  from  a  (professed  Christian)  blood- 
hound, to  a  land  vvliore  he  could  enjoy  that  of 
which  he  had  been  robbed  during  forty  years. 
His  prayers  would  have  made  us  all  feel.  I  saw 
a  Bapiist  sister  of  about  the  same  age,  her  chil- 
dren had  been  torn  from  her,  her  head  was  cover- 
ed with  fresh  Vv'ounds,  while  her  upjjor  lip  ha-.l 
scarcely  ceased  to  bleed,  in  consequence  of  a  blow 
with  the  poker,  which  knocked  out  her  tcetli : 
she  too,  was  going  to  a  land  of  freedom.  Only  a 
very  icw  days  since,  I  saw  a  girl  of  about  eigii- 
teen,  with  a  child  as  white  as  myself,  aged  ten 
months  ;  a  Christian  master  was  raising  her  child 
(as  well  his  own  perhaps)  to  sell  to  a  southern 
market.  She  had  heard  of  the  intention,  and  at 
midnight  took  her  only  treasure  and  traveled 
twenty  miles  on  foot  through  a  land  of  strangers — 
she  found  friends." 

Rev.  Henry  T.  Hopkins,  pastor  of  the  Primi- 
tive Methodist  Church  in  New  York  City,  wiio 
resided  in  Virginia  from  1821  to  1826,  relates  the 
following  fact : 

"An  old  colored  man,  the  slave  of  Mr.  Emer- 
son, of  Portsmouth,  Virginia,  being  under  deep 
conviction  for  sin,  went  into  tjie  back  part  of  his 
master's  garden  to  pour  out  his  soul  in  prayer  to 
God.  For  this  offence  he  was  whipped  thirty- 
nine  lashes." 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Doctor  F.  Julius  Lk 
MoYNE,  of  Washington,  Pennsylvania,  dated 
Jan.  9,  1839. 

"  Lest  you  should  not  have  seen  the  state- 
ment to  which  I  am  going  to  allude,  I  subjoin  a 
brief  cutlin:^  of  the  facts  of  a  transaction  which 
occurred  in  Western  Virginia,  adjacent  to  tliis 
county,  a  number  of  years  ago — a  full  account 


Punishments — -Wanton  Cruellies. 


89 


of  which  was  published  in  the  "  Witness"  about 
two  years  since  by  Dr.  Mitchell,  who  now  resides 
in  Indiana  county,  Pennsylvania.  A  slave  boy 
ran  away  in  cold  weather,  and  during  his  con- 
cealment had  his  legs  frozen ;  he  returned,  or  was 
retaken.  After  some  time  the  flesh  decayed  and 
sloughed — of  course  was  offensive — he  was  car- 
ried out  to  a  field  and  left  there  without  bed,  or 
shelter,  deserted  to  die.  His  only  companions 
were  the  house  dogs  which  he  called  to  him.  Af- 
ter several  days  and  nights  spent  in  suffering  and 
exposure,  he  was  visited  by  Drs.  McKitchen  and 
Mitchell  in  the  field,  of  their  own  accord,  having 
heard  by  report  of  his  lauientablc  condition;  ihey 
remonstrated  with  the  master  ;  brought  the  boy 
to  the  house,  amputated  both  legs,  and  he  finally 
recovered." 

Hon.  James  K.  Paulding,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  of  the  U.  States,  in  his  "  Letters  from  the 
South"  published  in  1817,  relates  the  following : 

"  At  one  of  the  taverns  along  the  road  we 
were  set  down  in  the  same  room  with  an  elderly 
man  and  a  youth  who  seemed  to  be  well  acquaint- 
ed with  him,  for  they  conversed  familiarly  and 
with  true  republican  independence — for  they  did 
not  mind  who  heard  them.  From  the  tenor  of 
his  conversation  I  was  induced  to  look  particu- 
larly at  the  elder.  He  was  telling  the  youth 
something  like  the  following  detested  tale.  He 
was  going,  it  seems,  to  Richmond,  to  inquire  about 
a  draft  for  seven  thousand  dollars,  which  he  had 
sent  by  mail,  but  which,  not  having  been  ac- 
knowledged by  his  correspondent,  he  was  afraid 
had  been  stolen,  and  the  money  received  by 
the  thief.  '  I  should  not  like  to  lose  it,'  said  he, 
'  for  I  worked  hard  for  it,  and  sold  many  a  poor 

d 1  of  a  black  to   Carolina  and  Georgia,  to 

scrape  it  together.'  He  then  went  on  to  tell 
many  a  perfidious  tale.  All  along  the  road  it 
seems  he  made  it  his  business  to  inquire  whcie 
lived  a  man  who  might  be  tempted  to  become  a 
party  in  this  accursed  traffic,  and  when  he  had 
got  some  half  dozen  of  these  poor  creatures,  he 
tied  their  hands  behind  their  backs,  and  drove 
them  three  or  four  hundred  miles  or  more,  bare- 
headed and  half  naked  through  the  burning 
southern  sun.  Fearful  that  even  southern  huina- 
nity  would  revolt  at  such  an  exhibition  of  human 
misery  and  human  barbarity,  he  gave  out  that 
they  were  runaway  slaves  he  was  carrying  home 
to  their  masters.  On  one  occasion  a  poor  black 
woman  exposed  this  fallacy,  and  told  the  story  of 
her  being  kidnapped,  and  when  he  got  her 
into  a  wood  out  of  hearing,  he  beat  her,  to  use 
liis  own  expression,  '  till  her  back  was  white.' 
It  seems  he  married  all  the  men  and  women  he 
bought,  himself,  because  they  would  sell  better  for 
boing  man  and  wife !  But,  said  the  youth,  were 
you  not  afraid,  in  traveling  tiirough  the  wild 
country  and  sleeping  in  lone  houses,  these  slaves 
would  rise  and  kill  you  ?  '  To  be  sure  I  was,' 
said  the  other,  '  but  I  always  fastened  my  door, 
put  a  chair  on  a  table  before  it,  so  that  it  might 
wake  mc  in  falling,  and  slept  with  a  loaded  pistol 
in  each  hand.  It  was  a  bad  life,  and  I  left  it  off 
as  soon  as  I  could  live  without  it ;  for  many  is  the 
time  I  have  separated  wives  from  husbands,  and 
husbands  from  wives,  and  parents  from  children, 
Out  then  I  made  them  amends  by  marryin«r  ♦'^em 


again  as  soon  as  I  had  a  chance,  that  is  to  say,  I 
made  them  call  each  other  man  and  wife,  and 
sleep  together,  which  is  quite  enougli  for  negroes. 
I  made  one  bad  purchase  though,'  continued  he. 
'  I  bought  a  yoimg  mulatto  girl,  a  lively  creature, 
a  great  bargain.  She  had  been  the  favorite  of 
her  master,  who  had  lately  married.  The  dif- 
ficulty was  to  get  her  to  go,  for  the  poor  creature 
loved  her  master.  However,  I  swore  most  bit- 
terly I  was  only  going  to  take  her  to  her  mother's 

at and  she  went  with  me,  though  she  seemed 

to  doubt  me  very  much.  But  when  she  discovered, 
at  last,  that  we  were  out  of  the  state,  I  thought 
she  would  go  mad,  and  in  fact,  the  next  night  she 
drowned  herself  in  the  river  close  by.  I  lost  a 
good  five  hundred  dollars  by  this  foolish  trick.'  " 
Vol.  I.  p.  121. 

Mr. Spillman,  a  native,  and  till  recently. 

a  resident  of  Virginia,  now  a  member  of  the  Pres. 
byterian  church  in  Delhi,  Hamilton  co.,  Ohio,  has 
furnished  the  two  following  facts,  of  which  he  had 
personal  knowledge. 

''  David  Stallard,  of  Shenandoah  co.,  Virginia, 
had  a  slave,  who  run  away;  he  was  taken  up  and 
lodged  in  Woodstock  jail.  Stallard  went  with  an- 
other man  and  too^v  him  out  of  the  jail — tied  him 
to  their  horses — and  started  for  home.  Tlie  day 
was  excessively  hot,  and  they  rode  so  fast,  drag- 
ging the  man  by  the  rope  behind  them,  that  he 
became  perfectly  exhausted — fainted — dropped 
down,  and  died. 

"Henry  Jones,  of  Culpepper  co.,  Virginia, 
owned  a  slave,  who  ran  away.  Jones  caught 
him,  tied  him  up,  and  for  two  days,  at  intervals, 
continued  to  flog  him,  and  rub  salt  into  his  mnn- 
gled  flesh,  until  his  back  was  literally  cut  up.  The 
slave  sunk  under  the  torture  ;  and  for  some  days 
it  was  supposed  he  must  die.  He,  however,  slow- 
ly recovered  ;  though  it  was  some  weeks  before  he 
could  walk." 

Mr.  Nathan  Cole,  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Arthur  Tappan,  of  New-York,  dated 
July  2,  1834,  says,— 

"  You  will  find  inclosed  an  account  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  an  inquest  lately  held  in  this  city  upon 
the  body  of  a  slave,  the  details  of  which,  if  pub- 
lished, not  one  in  ten  could  be  induced  to  believe 
true.*  It  appears  that  the  master  or  mistress,  or 
both,  suspected  the  unfortunate  wretch  of  hiding 
a  bunch  of  keys  vi'hich  were  missing  ;  and  to  ex- 
tort some  explanation,  which,  it  is  more  than  pro- 
bable, the  slave  was  as  unable  to  do  as  her  mis- 
tress, or  any  other  person,  her  master.  Major  Har- 
ney, an  officer  of  our  army,  had  whipped  her  for 
three  successive  days,  and  it  is  supposed  by  some, 
that  she  was  kept  tied  during  the  time,  until  her 
flesh  was  so  lacerated  and  torn  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  the  jury  to  say  whether  it  had  been  done 
with  a  whip  or  hot  iron  ;  some  think  both — but  she 
was  tortured  to  death.  It  appears  also  that  the 
husband  of  the  said  slave  had  become  suspected 
of  telhng  some  neighbor  of  what  was  going  on,  for 

*  The  foUowinR  is  the  newspaper  notice  referred  to : — 
An  inquest  was  held  at  llie  dwcllinc;  lioiise  of  Slajor  Har- 
ney, in  tliis  city,  on  the  27th  inst.  by  the  coroner,  on  the 
boily  of  Hannah,  a  slave.  The  jury,  on  their  oaths,  and 
after  hearing  the  testimony  of  physicians  and  several  othor 
witnesses,  found,  that  said  slave  "  came  to  her  death  by 
.-  -  ■~Ag  iiifiicted  bv  ■William  S.  Harney." 


00 


Punishments — W anton  Cruelties. 


which  Major  Harncj  commenced  torturingf  him, 
nntil  the  man  broke  I'roiii  liim,  and  ran  into  the 
Mississippi  ami  drowned  himself.  The  man  was 
a  pious  and  very  industrious  slave,  perliaps  not 
surpassed  by  any  in  this  place.  The  woman  has 
been  in  the  family  of  John  Shackford,  Esq.,  the 
I)resent  doorkeeper  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  for  many  years  ;  was  considered  an  excel- 
lent servant — was  the  mother  of  a  number  of 
children — and  I  believe  was  sold  into  the  family 
where  she  met  her  fate,  as  matter  of  conscience, 
to  keep  her  from  being  sent  below." 

Mr.  EzEKiEL  BniDSEVE,  a  highly  respected  citi. 
zen  of  Cornwall,  Litchfield  co.,  Connecticut,  who 
resided  for  many  years  at  the  south,  furnished  to 
the  Rev.  E.  R.  Tyler,  editor  of  the  Connecticut 
Observer,  the  following  personal  testimony. 

"  While  I  lived  in  Limestone  co.,  Alabama,  in 
1826-7,  a  tavern-keeper  of  the  village  of  Mores- 
vilic  discovered  a  negro  carrying  away  a  piece  of 
old  carpet.  It  was  during  the  Christmas  holidays, 
when  the  slaves  are  allowed  to  visit  their  friends. 
The  negro  stated  that  one  of  the  servants  of  the 
tavern  owed  him  some  twelve  and  a  half  or 
twenty-five  cents,  and  that  he  had  taken  the  car- 
pet inpayment.  This  the  serva:;!  dtmied.  The 
innkeeper  took  the  negro  *.->  i  field  near  by, 
and  whipped  him  cruelly,  lii:  ihen  struck  him 
with  a  slake,  and  punched  him  in  the  face  and 
moulh,  knocking  out  some  of  his  teeth.  After 
this,  he  took  him  back  to  the  house,  and  com- 
)nitted  him  to  the  care  of  his  son,  wlio  had 
just  then  come  home  with  another  young  man. 
This  was  at  evening.  They  whipped  him  by 
turns,  with  heavy  cowskins,  and  made  the  do(rs 
shnhe  him.  A  JVIr.  Phillips,  who  lodged  at  the 
house,  heard  the  cruelty  during  the  night.  On 
getting  up  he  found  the  negro  in  the  bar-room, 
terribly  mangled  with  the  whip,  and  his  flesh  so 
torn  by  the  dogs,  that  the  cords  were  bare.  He 
remarked  to  the  landlord  that  he  was  dangerously 
hurt,  and  needed  care.  The  landlord  replied  that 
he  deserved  none.  Mr.  Phillips  went  to  a  neigh- 
boring magistrate,  who  took  the  slave  home  with 
hiiTi,  where  he  soon  died.  The  father  and  son  were 
both  tried,  and  acquitted  I  !  A  suit  was  brought, 
however,  for  damages  in  behalf  of  the  owner  of 
the  slave,  a  yoimg  lady  by  the  name  of  Agnes 
Jones.  /  was  on  thd  jury  when  these  fuels  loere 
ataicd  on  oath.  Two  men  testified,  one  that  ho 
woul  1  have  given  ,^1000  for  him,  the  other  ,*$900 
or  .'^9.'j0.     Tlic  jury  found  the  latter  sum. 

"  At  Union  Court  House,  S.  C,  a  tavern-keep- 
er, by  the  name  of  Samuel  Davis,  procured  the 
conviction  and  execution  of  his  own  slave,  for 
stealing  a  cake  of  gingerbread  from  a  grog  shop. 
The  slave  raised  the  latch  of  the  back  door,  and 
took  the  cake,  doing  no  other  injury.  The  shop 
keeper,  whose  name  was  Charles  Gordon,  was 
willing  to  foi-give  him,  but  his  master  procured  his 
rxmviction  and  execution  by  lianging.  The  slave 
liad  but  one  arm ;  and  an  order  on  the  state  trea- 
sury by  the  court  that  tried  him,  which  also  as- 
sessed his  value,  brouglit  him  more  money  than 
he  could  have  obtained  for  the  slave  in  market." 

Mr. ,  an  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 

in  one  of  the  slave  states,  lately  wrote  a  letter  to 


an  agent  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  in  which  he 
states  the  following  fact.  The  name  of  the  writer 
is  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American 
Anti-Slavery  Society. 

"  I  was  passing  through  a  piece  of  timbered  land, 
and  on  a  sudden  I  heard  a  sound  as  of  murder ; 
I  rode  in  that  direction,  and  at  some  distance  dis- 
covered a  naked  black  man,  hung  to  the  limb  of 
a  tree  by  his  hands,  his  feet  chained  together,  and 
a  pine  rail  laid  with  one  end  on  the  chain  between 
his  legs,  and  the  other  upon  the  ground,  to  steady 
him  ;  and  in  this  condition  the  overseer  gave  him 
four  hundred  lashes.  The  miserably  lacerated 
slave  was  then  taken  down,  and  put  to  the  care 
of  a  physician.  And  what  do  you  suppose  was 
the  offence  for  which  all  this  was  done  ?  Simply 
this:  his  owner,  observing  that  he  laid  off  corn 
rows  too  crooked,  he  replied,  '  Massa,  much  corn 
grow  on  crooked  row  as  f)n  straight  one.'  This 
was  it — this  was  enough.  His  overseer,  boasting  of 
his  skill  in  managing  a  nigger,  he  was  subniitted 
to  him,  and  treated  as  above." 

David  L.  Child,  Esq.,  of  Northampton,  Massa- 
chusetts, Secretary  of  the  United  States  minister 
at  the  Court  of  Lisbon  during  the  administration  of 
President  Monroe,  stated  the  following  fact  in  an 
oration  delivered  by  him  in  Boston,  in  1834.  (See 
Child's  "  Despotism  of  Freedom,"  p.  30. 

"  An  honorable  friend,  who  stands  high  in  tlie 
state  and  in  the  nation,*  was  present  at  the  burial 
of  a  female  slave  in  Mississippi,  who  had  been 
whipped  to  death  at  the  stake  by  her  master,  be. 
cause  she  was  gone  longer  of  an  errand  to  the 
neighboring  town  than  her  master  thought  neces- 
sary. Under  the  lash  she  protested  that  she  was 
ill,  and  was  obliged  to  rest  in  the  fields.  To  com- 
plete the  climax  of  horror,  she  was  delivered  of  a 
dead  infant  while  undergoing  the  punishment."' 

The  same  fact  is  stated  by  Mrs.  Child  in  licr 
"  Appeal."  In  answer  to  a  recent  letter,  inquir- 
ing of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Child  if  they  were  now  at 
libertv  to  disclose  the  name  of  their  informant, 
Mr.  C.  says, — 

''  The  witness  who  staled  to  us  tlie  fact  was 
John  James  Appleton,  Esq.,  of  Cambridge,  Mas-.'. 
He  is  now  in  Europe,  and  it  is  not  without  some 
hesitation  that  I  give  his  name.  He,  however, 
has  openly  embraced  our  cause,  and  taken  a  con- 
spicuous jjart  in  some  an1i-slavery  public  meet, 
ings  since  the  time  that  I  felt  a  scnijile  at  publish, 
ing  his  name.  Mr.  Appleton  is  a  gentleman  of 
high  talents  and  accoinjilishments.  He  has  been 
Secretary  of  Legation  at  Rio  Janeiro,  Madrid. 
and  the  Hague  ;  Commissioner  at  Naples,  and 
Charge  d'AfFaires  at  Stockholm." 

The  two   following  facts  are  stated  upon  the 
authority  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  G.  Wilsox,  pastor  of    ^ 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Salem,  Washington 
CO.,  Indiana. 

"  In  Bath  co.,  Kentucky,  Mr.  L.,  in  the  year 
'32  or  '33,  while  intoxicated,  in  a  fit  of  rage  whip- 
ped a  female  slave  until  she  fainted  and  fell  oil 
the  floor.     Then  he  whipped  her  to  get  up;  then 

*  "  Tlip  narrator  of  this  fact  is  no-'  .ibsmt  from  tlifi  United 
States,  and  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  l;.  mention  \.U  nxce." 


Punishments — Cruelties. 


91 


with  red  hot  ton^s  he  burned  off  her  ears,  and 
whipped  her  again  !  but  all  in  vain.  He  then  or- 
dered his  negro  men  to  carry  her  to  the  cabin. 
'I'iiere  she  was  found  dead  next  morning-. 

"  One  Wall,  in  Chester  district,  S.  C,  owned  a 
slave,  whom  he  hired  to  his  brother-in-law,  VVm. 
licckraan,  for  whom  the  slave  worked  eifrhteen 
months,  and  worked  well.  Two  weeks  after  re- 
turning to  his  master  he  ran  away  on  account  of 
had  treatment.  To  induce  him  to  return,  the 
master  sold  him  nominally  to  his  neighbor,  to 
wliom  the  slave  gave  himself  up,  and  by  whom 
lie  was  returned  to  his  master : — Punishment, 
giripes.  To  prevent  escape  a  bar  of  iron  was  fast, 
cnod  witli  three  bands,  at  the  waist,  knee,  and 
ajikle.  Tiiat  niglit  he  broke  tiie  bands  and  bar, 
and  escaped.  Next  day  he  was  taken  and 
whipped  to  death,  by  three  men,  the  master. 
Thorn,  and  the  overseer.  First,  he  was  whipped 
and  driven  towards  home  ;  on  the  way  he  attempt- 
ed to  escape,  and  was  shot  at  by  the  master, — 
caught,  and  knocked  down  with  the  butt  of  the  gun 
by  'i'horn.  In  attempting  to  cross  a  ditch  he  fell, 
with  his  feet  down,  and  face  on  the  bank ;  they 
whipped  in  vain  to  get  him  up — he  died.  His 
soul  ascended  to  God,  to  be  a  swift  witness  against 
his  oppressors.  This  took  place  at  12  o'clock. 
Next  evening  an  inquest  was  held.  Of  thirteen 
jurors,  summoned  by  the  coroner,  nine  said  it 
was  murder;  two  said  it  was  manslaughter,  and 
two  said  it  was  justifiable  I  He  was  bound  over 
to  court,  tried,  and  acquitted — not  even  fined  I" 

The  following  fact  is  stated  on  the  authority  of 
M  r.  Wji.  Willis,  of  Green  Plains,  Clark  co.  Ohio  ; 
formerly  of  Caroline  co.  on  the  eastern  shore  of 
Maryland. 

"  Mr.  W.  knew  a  slave  called  Peter  White,  who 
was  sold  to  be  taken  to  Georgia ;  he  escaped,  and 
lived  a  long  time  in  the  woods — was  finally  taken. 
When  he  found  himself  surrounded,  he  surren- 
dered himself  quietly.  When  his  pursuers  had 
him  in  their  possession,  they  shot  him  in  the  leg, 
and  broke  it,  out  of  mere  wantonness.  The  next 
day  a  Methodist  minister  set  his  leg,  and  bound  it 
up  with  splints.  The  man  who  took  him,  then 
went  into  his  place  of  confinement,  wantonly 
jumped  upon  his  leg  and  crushed  it.  His  name 
was  William  Sparks." 

Most  of  our  readers  are  familiar  with  the  hor. 
rible  atrocities  perpetrated  in  New  Orleans,  in 
1834,  by  a  certain  Madame  La  Laurie,  upon  her 
slaves.  They  were  publislied  extensively  in  north- 
em  newspapers  at  the  time.  The  following  are  ex- 
tracts from  the  accounts  as  published  in  the  New 
Orleans  papers  immediately  after  the  occurrence. 
The  New  Orleans  Bee  says  : — 

"  Upon  entering  one  of  the  apartments,  the  most 
appalling  spectacle  met  their  eyes.  Seven  slaves, 
more  or  less  horribly  mutilated,  were  seen  sus- 
pended by  the  neck,  with  their  limbs  apparently 
stretched  and  torn,  from  one  extremity  to  the 
other.  They  had  been  confined  for  several  months 
in  the  situation  from  which  they  had  thus  provi- 
dentially been  rescued  ;  and  had  been  merely  kept 
in  existence  to  prolong  their  sufferings,  and  to 
make  them  taste  all  that  a  most  refined  cruelty 
could  infliot " 


The  New  Orleans  Mercantile  Advertiser  says  ; 

"  A  negro  woman  was  found  chained,  covered 
with  bruises  and  wounds  from  severe  flogging. — 
All  the  apartments  were  then  forced  open.  In  a 
room  on  the  ground  floor,  two  more  were  found 
chained,  and  in  a  deplorable  condition.  Up  stairs 
and  in  the  garret,  four  more  were  found  chained  ; 
some  so  weak  as  to  be  unable  to  walk,  and  all  co- 
vered with  wounds  and  sores.  One  mulatto  boy 
declares  himself  to  have  been  chained  for  five 
months,  being  fed  daily  with  only  a  handful  of 
meal,  and  receiving  every  morning  the  most  cruel 
treatment." 

The  New  Orleans  Courier  says : — 
"  We  saw  one  of  these  miserable  beings. — He 
had  a  large  hole  in  his  head — his  body,  from  head 
to  foot,  was  covered  with  scars  and  filled  with 
worms." 

The  New  Orleans  Mercantile  Advertiser  says  : 
"  Seven  poor  unfortunate  slaves  were  found — 
some  chained  to  the  floor,  others  \\\i\\  chains 
around  their  necks,  fastened  to  the  ceiling  ;  and 
one  poor  old  man,  upwards  of  sixty  years  of  age, 
chained  hand  and  foot,  and  made  fast  to  the  floor, 
in  a  kneeling  position.  His  head  bore  the  ajipear- 
ancc  of  having  been  beaten  until  it  was  broken, 
and  the  worms  were  actually  to  be  seen  making 
a  feast  of  his  brains  ! !  A  woman  had  her  back 
literally  cooked  (if  the  expression  may  be  u«;<;d> 
with  the  lash  ;  the  very  hones  might  he  seen  pro- 
jecting through  the  skin .'" 

The  New  York  Sun,  of  Feb.  21, 1837,  contains 
the  following : — 

"  Two  negroes,  runaways  from  Virginia,  were 
overtaken  a  few  days  since  near  Johnstown,  Co- 
lumbia CO.  N.  Y.  when  the  persons  in  pursuit  called 
out  for  them  to  stop  or  they  would  shoot  them. — 
One  of  the  negroes  turned  around  and  said,  "he 
would  die  before  he  would  be  taken,  and  at  the 
moment  received  a  rifle  ball  through  his  knee  : 
the  other  started  to  run,  but  was  brought  to  the 
ground  by  a  ball  being  shot  in  his  back.  After 
receiving  the  above  wounds  they  made  battle  with 
their  pursuers,  but  were  captured  and  brought  in- 
to Johnstown.  It  is  said  that  the  young  men 
who  shot  them  had  orders  to  take  them  dead  or 
alive." 

Mr,  M.  M.  Shafter,  of  Townsend,  Vermont, 
recently  a  graduate  of  the  Wesleyan  University  at 
Middletown,  Connecticut,  makes  the  following 
statement : 

"  Some  of  the  events  of  the  Southampton,  Va. 
insurrection  were  narrated  to  me  by  Mr.  Benja- 
min W.  Britt,  from  Riddicksville.  N.  C.  Mr, 
Britt  claimed  the  honor  of  having  shot  a  black  on 
that  occasion,  for  the  crime  of  disobeying  Mr, 
Britt's  imperative  '  Stop  !'  And  Mr.  Ashurst,  of 
Edcnton,  Georgia,  told  me  that  a  neighbor  of  hie 
'  fired  at  a  likely  negro  boy  of  his  mother,'  because 
the  said  boy  encroached  upon  his  premises." 

Mr.  David  Hawley,  a  class  leader  in  the  Me- 
thodist Episcopal  Church  at  St.  Albans,  Licking 
county,  Ohio,  who  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Ohio 
in  1831,  certifies  as  follows: — 

"  About  the  year  1825,  a  slave  had  escaped  for 


92 


Punishments — Cruelties. 


Canada,  but  was  arrested  in  Hardin  county.  On 
his  return,  I  saw  liini  in  Hart  county — liis  wrists 
tied  together  before,  his  arms  tied  close  to  his  body, 
tlic  rope  then  passinor  behind  liis  body,  thence  to 
the  neck  of  a  horse  on  which  rode  the  master, 
witli  a  club  about  three  feet  long,  and  of  the  size 
of  a  hoe  handle  ;  which,  by  the  appearance  of  the 
slave,  had  been  used  on  his  head,  so  as  to  wear  off 
the  hair  and  skin  in  several  places,  and  the  blood 
was  runnin.nf  freely  from  his  mouth  and  nusc  ;  his 
heels  very  much  bruised  by  the  horse's  feet,  as  his 
mastiT  had  rode  on  him  because  he  would  not  go 
fast  enough.  Snch  was  the  slave's  appearance 
when  passing  through  where  I  resided.  Such 
cases  were  not  unfrcquent." 

The  following  is  furnished  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Hart, 
of  Middletown,  Connecticut,  a  manufacturer,  and 
an  influential  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  It  occurred  in  1824,  about  twenty-five 
miles  this  side  of  Baltimore,  Maryland, — 

"  I  had  spent  the  night  with  a  Methodist  bro- 
ther ;  and  while  at  breakfast,  a  person  came  in 
and  called  for  help.  We  went  out  and  found  a 
crowd  collected  around  a  carriage.  Upon  ap. 
proaching  wc  discovered  that  a  slave-trader  was 
endeavoring  to  force  a  woman  into  his  carriage. 
He  had  already  put  in  three  children,  the  young- 
est apparently  about  eight  years  of  age.  The  wo- 
man was  strong,  and  whenever  he  brought  her  to 
the  side  of  the  carriage,  she  resisted  so  effectually 
with  her  feet  that  he  could  not  get  her  in.  The 
woman  becoming  exhausted,  at  length,  b}-  her 
frantic  efforts,  he  thrust  her  in  with  great  violence, 
stamped  her  doipn  upon  the  bottom  with  hisjeet.' 
shouted  to  the  diivcr  to  goon;  and  away  they 
rolled,  the  miserable  captives  moaning  and  shriek. 
ing,  until  their  voices  were  lost  in  the  distance." 

Mr.  Samuel  Hall,  a  teacher  in  Marietta  Col- 
lege, Ohio,  writes  as  follows : — 

"  Mr.  Isaac  C.  Fuller  is  a  member  of  the  Me- 
thodist Episcopal  Cliurch  in  Marietta.  He  was  a 
fellow  student  of  mine  while  in  college,  and  now 
resides  in  this  place.  He  says: — In  1832,  as  I 
was  descending  the  Ohio  with  a  flat  boat,  near 
the  '  French  Islands,'  so  called,  below  Cincinnati, 
I  saw  two  negroes  on  horseback.  The  horses  ap- 
parently took  fright  at  something  and  ran.  Both 
jumped  over  a  rail  fence  ;  and  one  of  the  horses, 
in  60  doing,  broke  one  of  his  fore-legs,  falling  at 
the  same  time  and  throwing  the  negro  who  was 
upon  his  back.  A  white  man  came  out  of  a  house 
not  over  two  hundred  yards  distant,  and  came  to 
the  spot.  Seizing  a  stake  from  the  fence,  he 
knocked  the  negro  down  five  or  six  times  in  suc- 
cession. 

•'  In  the  same  year  I  worked  for  a  Mr.  Now- 
land,  eleven  miles  above  Baton  Rouge,  La.  at  a 
place  called  '  Thomas'  Bend.'  He  had  an  over- 
seer who  was  accustomed  to  flog  more  or  less  of 
the  slaves  every  morning.  I  heard  the  blows  and 
screams  as  regularly  as  we  used  to  hear  the  col- 
lege bell  that  summoned  us  to  any  dut}'  when  we 
went  to  school.  This  overseer  was  a  nephew  of 
Nowland,  and  there  were  about  fifty  slaves  on 
bis  plantation.  Nowland  himself  related  the 
following  to  me.  One  of  his  slaves  ran  away, 
jiad  came  to  the  Homo  Chitto  river,  where  he 


found  no  means  of  crossing.  Here  he  fell  in  with 
a  white  man  who  knew  his  master,  being  on  a 
journey  from  that  vicinitj'.  He  induced  the  slave 
to  return  to  Baton  Rouge,  under  the  promise  of 
giving  him  a  pass,  by  which  he  might  escape,  but, 
in  reality,  to  betray  him  to  his  master.  This  he  did, 
instead  of  fulfilling  his  promise.  Nov.'land  said 
that  he  took  the  slave  and  inflicted  five  hundred 
lashes  upon  him,  cutting  his  back  all  to  pieces, 
and  then  threw  on  hot  embers.  The  slave  vias 
on  the  plantation  at  the  time,  and  told  jnc  the 
same  story.  He  also  rolled  up  his  sleeves,  and 
showed  me  the  scars  on  his  arms,  which,  in  con- 
sequence,  appeared  in  places  to  be  callous  to  the 
bone.  I  was  with  Nowland  between  five  and  si.x 
months." 

Rev.  JoH.\  Rankin,  formerly  of  Tennessee,  now 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Ripley,  Ohio, 
has  furnished  the  following  statement : — 

"  The  Rev.  Ludwell  G.  Gaines,  now  pastor 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Goshen,  Clermont 
county,  Ohio,  stated  to  mc,  that  while  a  resident 
of  a  slave  state,  he  was  summoned  to  assist  in 
taking  a  man  who  had  made  his  black  woman 
work  naked  several  days,  and  afterwards  mur- 
dered her.  The  murderer  armed  himself,  and 
threatened  to  shoot  tlie  officer  who  went  to  take 
him  ;  and  although  there  was  ample  assistance  at 
hand,  the  off^lcer  declined  further  interference." 

Mr.  Rankin  adds  the  following  : — 

"  A  Presbyterian  preacher,  now  resident  in  a 
slave  state,  and  therefore  it  is  not  expedient  to 
give  his  name,  stated,  that  he  saw  on  board  of  a 
steamboat  at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  a  woman  who 
had  been  forced  on  board,  to  be  carried  off  from 
all  she  counted  dear  on  earth.  She  ran  across 
the  boat  and  threw  herself  into  the  river,  in  order 
to  end  a  life  of  intolerable  sorrows.  She  was 
drawn  back  to  the  boat  and  taken  up.  The  bru- 
tal  driver  beat  her  severely,  and  she  iinmediatel}- 
threw  herself  again  into  the  river.  She  was  hook- 
ed up  again,  chained,  and  carried  off." 

Testimony  of  Mr.  William  Hansbokough,  of 
Culpepper  county,  Virgkinia,  the  ''  owner"  of  sixty 
slaves. 

"  I  saw  a  slave  taken  out  of  prison  by  his  mas- 
ter, on  a  hot  summer's  day,  and  driven,  by  said 
master,  on  the  road  before  him,  till  he  dropped 
down  dead." 

The  above  statement  was  made  by  Mr.  Hans- 
borough  to  Lindley  Coates,  of  Lancaster  countj% 
Pa.  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  and  a  member  of  the  late  Convention  in 
Pa.  for  altering  the  State  Constitution.  The  let- 
ter from  Mr.  C.  containing  this  testimony  of  Mr. 
H.  is  now  before  us. 

Mr.  Tobias  Boudinot,  a  member  of  the  Method. 
ist  Church  in  St.  Albans,  Licking  county,  Ohio, 
says : 

"In  Nicholasvillc,  Ky.  in  the  year  1823,  he 
saw  a  slave  fleeing  before  the  patrol,  but  he  vi  as 
overtaken  near  where  he  stood,  and  a  man  with 
a  knotted  cane,  as  large  as  his  wrist,  struck  the 
slave  a  number  of  times  on  his  head,  until  the 


Punishments — Brandings. 


93 


club  was  broken  and  he  made  tame  ;  the  blood 
was  thrown  in  every  direction  by  the  violence  of 
the  blows." 

The  Rev.  William  Dickey,  of  Bloomingburg, 
Fayette  county,  Ohio,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Rev. 
John  Rankin,  of  Ripley,  Ohio,  thirteen  years 
since,  containing  a  description  of  the  cutting  up 
of  a  slave  with  a  broad  axe  ;  beginning  at  the  feet 
and  gradually  cutting  the  legs,  arms,  and  body 
into  pieces  1  This  diabolical  atrocity  was  com- 
mitted in  the  state  of  Kentucky,  in  the  year  1807. 
The  perpetrators  of  the  deed  were  two  brothers, 
Lilburn  and  Isham  Lewis,  nephews  of  President 
Jefferson.  The  writer  of  this  having  been  in. 
formed  by  Mr.  Dickey,  that  some  of  the  facts  con- 
nected with  this  murder  were  not  contained  in 
his  letter  published  by  Mr.  Rankin,  requested  him 
to  \vrite  the  account  anew,  and  furnish  the  addi- 
tional facts.  This  he  did,  and  the  letter  contain, 
ing  it  was  published  in  the  "  Human  Rights"  for 
August,  1837.  We  insert  it  here,  slightly  abridg- 
ed, with  the  introductory  remarks  which  appeared 
in  that  paper. 

"  Mr.  Dickey's  first  letter  has  been  scattered  all 
over  tiie  country,  south  and  north ;  and  though 
multitudes  have  affected  to  disbelieve  its  state- 
ments, Kentuckiaas  know  the  truth  of  them  quite 
too  well  to  call  them  in  question.  The  story  is 
fiction  or  fact — U  fiction,  why  has  it  not  been  nail- 
ed to  the  wall  ?  Hundreds  of  people  around  the 
mouth  of  Cumberland  River  are  personally  know- 
ing to  these  facts.  There  are  the  records  of  the 
court  that  tried  the  wretches. — There  their  ac- 
quaintances and  kindred  still  live.  All  over  that 
region  of  country,  the  brutal  butchery  of  George 
is  a  matt.';r  of  public  notoriety.  It  is  quite  need- 
less, perhaps,  to  add,  that  the  Rev.  Wm.  Dickey 
is  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  one  of  the  oldest 
members  oi'  the  Chiheothe  Presbytery,  and  greatly 
respected  and  beloved  by  the  churches  in  South, 
cm  Ohio.  He  was  born  in  South  Carolina,  and 
was  for  many  years  pastor  of  a  church  in  Ken- 
tucky'. 

REV.  WM.    dickey's    LETTER. 

"  In  the  county  of  Livingston,  Ky.  near  the 
mouth  of  Cumberland  River,  lived  Lilburn  Lewis, 
a  sister's  son  of  the  celebrated  Jefferson.  He  was 
the  wealthy  owner  of  a  considerable  gang  of  ne- 
groes, whom  he  drove  constantly,  fed  sparinglv, 
and  lashed  severely.  The  consequence  was,  that 
they  would  run  away.  Among  the  rest  was  an 
ill-thrived  boy  of  about  seventeen,  who,  havinar 
just  returned  from  a  skulking  spell,  was  sent  to 
the  spring  for  water,  and  in  returning  let  fall  an 
elegant  pitcher :  it  was  dashed  to  shivers  upon 
the  rocks.  This  was  made  the  occasion  for  reck- 
oning with  him.  It  was  night,  and  the  slaves 
were  all  at  home.  The  master  had  them  all  col- 
lected in  the  most  roomy  negro-house,  and  a  rous- 
ing fire  put  on.  When  the  door  was  secured,  that 
none  might  escape,  either  through /eor  of  him  or 
sympathy  with  George,  he  opened  to  them  the  de- 
sign of  the  interview,  namely,  that  they  might  be 
effectually  advised  to  stay  at  home  and  obey  his 
orders.    All  things  now  in  train,  he  called  up 


George,  who  approached  his  master  with  unre- 
served submission.  He  bound  him  with  cords ; 
and  by  the  assistance  of  Isham  Lewis,  his  young- 
est brother,  laid  him  on  a  broad  bench,  the  meat, 
block.  He  then  proceeded  to  hack  off  George  at 
the  ankles .'  It  was  with  the  broad  axe  .'  In  vain 
did  the  unhappy  victim  scream  and  roar .'  for  he 
was  completely  in  his  master's  power  ;  not  a  hand 
among  so  many  durst  interfere  :  casting  the  feet 
into  the  fire,  he  lectured  them  at  some  length. — 
He  next  chopped  him  off  below  the  knees.'  George 
roaring  out  and  praying  his  master  to  begin  at  the 
other  end  .'  He  admonished  them  again,  throw- 
ing the  legs  into  the  fire — then,  above  the  knees, 
tossing  the  joints  into  the  fire — the  next  stroke 
severed  the  thighs  from  the  body  ;  these  were  also 
committed  to  the  flames — and  so  it  may  be  said 
of  the  arms,  head,  and  trunk,  until  all  was  in  the 
fire  !  He  threatened  any  of  them  with  similar 
punishment  who  should  in  future  disobey,  run 
awaj',  or  disclose  the  proceedings  of  that  evening. 
Nothing  now  remained  but  to  consume  the  flesh 
and  bones ;  and  for  this  purpose  the  fire  was 
brightly  stirred  until-  two  hours  after  midnight ; 
when  a  coarse  and  heavy  back-wall,  composed  of 
rock  and  clay,  covered  the  fire  and  the  remains 
of  George.  It  was  the  Sabbath — this  put  an  end 
to  the  amusements  of  the  evening.  The  negroes 
were  now  permitted  to  disperse,  with  charges  to 
keep  this  matter  among  themselves,  and  never  to 
whisper  it  in  the  neighborhood,  under  the  penalty 
of  a  like  punishment. 

"  When  he  returned  home  and  retired,  hiS  wife 
exclaimed,  'Why,  Mr.  Lewis,  where  have  you 
been,  and  what  were  you  doing  ?'  She  had  heard 
a  strange  pounding  and  dreadful  screams,  and  had 
smcllcd  something  like  fresh  meat  burning.  The 
answer  he  returned  was,  that  he  had  never  enjoy- 
ed himself  at  a  ball  so  well  as  he  had  enjoyed  him- 
self  that  night. 

"  Next  morning  he  ordered  the  hands  to  rebuild 
the  back-wall,  and  he  himself  superintended  the 
work,  throwing  the  pieces  of  flesh  that  still  re- 
mained, with  the  bones,  behind,  as  it  went  up — 
thus  hoping  to  conceal  the  matter.  But  it  could 
not  be  hid — much  as  the  negroes  seemed  to  haz- 
ard, they  did  whisper  the  horrid  deed.  The  neigh- 
bors came,  and  in  his  presence  tore  down  the  wall ; 
and  finding  the  remains  of  the  boy,  they  appre- 
hended Lewis  and  his  brother,  and  testified  agkinst 
them.  They  were  committed  to  jail,  that  they 
might  answer  at  the  coming  court  for  this  shock- 
ing outrage  ;  but  finding  security  for  their  appear- 
ance at  court,  THEV  were  admitted  to  bail  ! 

"  In  the  interim,  other  articles  of  evidence  leak- 
ed out.  That  of  Mrs.  Lewis  hearing  a  pounding, 
and  screaming,  and  her  sinelhng  fresh  meat  burn- 
ing, for  not  till  now  had  this  come  out.  He  was 
offended  with  her  for  disclosing  these  things,  al- 
leging that  they  might  have  some  weight  against 
him  at  the  pending  trial. 

"  In  connection  with  this  is  another  item,  full 
of  horror.  Mrs.  Lewis,  or  her  girl,  in  making  her 
bed  one  morning  after  this,  found,  under  her  bol. 
ster,  a  keen  butcher  knife  !  The  appalling  disco- 
very forced  from  her  the  confession  that  she  con- 
sidered her  life  in  jeopardy.  Messrs.  Rice  and 
Philips,  whose  wives  were  her  sisters,  went  to  see 
her  and  to  bring  her  away  if  she  wished  it.  Mr. 
Lewis  received  them  with  all  the  expressions  of 


94 


Personal  Naraatives — Rev.  Francis  Hawley. 


Virginia  hospitality.  As  soon  as  they  were  seat- 
ed they  said,  '  Well,  Letitia,  we  supposed  that  you 
might  be  unhappy  here,  and  afraid  for  your  hfe  ; 
and  we  have  come  to-day  to  take  you  to  your  fa. 
ther's,  it'  you  desire  it.'  She  said,  '  Thank  you, 
kind  brothers,  I  am  indeed  afraid  for  my  life.' — 
We  need  not  interrupt  the  story  to  tell  how  much 
surprised  he  affected  to  be  with  this  strange 
procedure  of  his  brothers-in-law,  and  with  this 
declaration  of  his  wife.  But  all  his  professions 
of  fondness  for  her,  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing, they  rode  off  with  her  before  his  eyes. — 
He  followed  and  overtook,  and  went  with  them 
to  her  father's  ;  but  she  was  locked  up  from  him, 
with  her  own  consent,  and  he  returned  home. 

"  Now  he  saw  that  his  character  was  gone,  his 
respectable  friends  believed  that  he  had  massacred 
George  ;  but,  worst  of  all,  he  saw  that  they  con- 
sidered the  life  of  the  harmless  Letitia  was  in  dan- 
ger from  his  perfidious  hands.  It  was  too  much 
tor  his  chivalry  to  sustain.  The  proud  Virginian 
sunk  under  the  accumulated  load  of  public  odium. 
He  proposed  to  his  brother  Isham,  who  had  been 
his  accomplice  in  the  George  afi'air,  that  they 
aliould  finish  the  play  of  life  with  a  still  deeper 
tragedy.  The  plan  was,  that  they  should  shoot 
one  another.  Having  made  the  hot-brained  bar- 
gain, they  repaired  vi'ith  their  guns  to  the  grave- 
yard, whicli  was  on  an  eminence  in  the  midst  of 
hi§  plantation.  It  was  inclosed  with  a  railing, 
Bay  thirty  feet  square.  One  was  to  stand  at  one 
railing,  and  the  otiier  over  against  him  at  the 
other.  They  were  to  make  ready,  take  aim,  and 
count  deliberately  1,  2,  3,  and  then  fire.  Lilburn's 
will  was  written,  and  thrown  down  open  beside 
him.  They  cocked  their  guns  and  raised  them  to 
their  faces  ;  but  the  peradventure  occurring  that 
one  of  the  guns  might  miss  fire,  Isham  was  sent 
for  a  rod,  and  when  it  was  brought,  Lilburn  cut 
it  off  at  about  the  length  of  two  feet,  and  was  ] 
showing  his  brother  how  the  survivor   might  do,  ' 


provided  one  of  the  guns  should  fail ;  (for  they 
were  determined  upon  going  together;)  but  for- 
getting, perhaps,  in  the  perturbation  of  the  mo- 
ment that  the  gun  was  cocked,  when  he  touched 
the  trigger  with  the  rod  the  gun  fired,  and  he  fell, 
and  died  in  a  few  minutes — and  was  with  George 
in  the  eternal  world,  where  the  slave  is  free  froiti 
his  viaster.  But  poor  Isham  was  so  terrified  with 
this  unexpected  occurrence  and  so  confounded 
by  the  awful  contortions  of  his  brother's  face,  that 
he  had  not  nerve  enough  to  follow  up  the  play, 
and  finish  the  plan  as  was  intended,  but  suffered 
Lilburn  to  go  alone.  The  negroes  came  running 
to  see  what  it  meant  that  a  gun  should  be  fired  in 
the  graveyard.  There  lay  their  master,  dead  I 
They  ran  for  the  neighbors.  Isham  still  remain- 
ed on  the  spot.  The  neighbors  at  the  first  charged 
him  with  the  mm-der  of  hi.s  brother.  But  he, 
though  as  if  he  had  lost  more  than  half  his  mind, 
told  the  whole  story;  and  the  course  or  range  of 
the  ball  in  the  dead  man's  bodj'  agreeing  with  his 
statement,  Isham  was  not  farther  charged  with . 
Lilburn's  death. 

"TheCourt  sat — Isham  wasjudged  to  be  guilty 
of  a  capital  crime  in  the  affair  of  George  He  was 
to  bo  hanged  at  Salem.  The  day  was  set.  My 
good  old  father  visited  him  in  the  prison — two  or 
three  times  talked  and  prayed  with  him  ;  I  visited 
him  once  myself.  We  fondly  hoped  that  he  was 
a  sincere  penitent.  Before  the  day  of  execution 
came,  by  some  means,  I  never  knew  what,  Isham 
was  missing.  About  two  years  after,  we  learned 
that  he  had  gone  down  to  Natchez,  and  had  mar- 
ried a  lady  of  some  refinement  and  piety.  I  saw 
her  letters  to  his  sisters,  who  were  worthy  mem- 
bers of  the  church  of  which  I  was  pastor.  The 
last  letter  told  of  his  death.  He  was  in  Jackson's 
army,  and  fell  in  the  famous  battle  of  New  Or 
leans.  "  I  am,  sir,  your  friend, 

"Wm.  DicKEy." 


PERSONAL  NARRATIVES-PART   III. 

NARRATIVE  AND  TESTIMONY  OF  REV.  FRANCIS  HAWLEY. 


Mr.  Hawley  is  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church 
in  Colebrook,  Litchfield  county,  Connecticut. 
He  has  resided  fourteen  years  in  the  slave  states, 
North  and  South  Carolina.  His  character  and 
standing  with  his  own  denomination  at  the 
south,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact,  that  the 
Baptist  State  Convention  of  North  Carolina  ap- 
pointed him,  a  few  years  since,  their  general 
agent  to  visit  the  Baptist  churches  within  their 
bounds,  and  to  secure  their  co-operation  in  the  ob- 
jects of  the  Convention.  Mr.  H.  accepted  the 
appointment,  and  for  some  time  traveled  in  that 
capacity. 

"  I  r(!Joice  that  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  have  resolved 
to  publish  a  volume  of  facts  and  testimony  rela- 
tive to  the  character  and  workings  of  American 
slavery.  Having  resided  fourteen  years  at  the  ' 
south,  I  cheerfully  comply  with  your  request,  to 
give  the  result  of  my  observation  and  experience. 


And  I  would  here  remark,  that  one  may  reside 
at  the  south  for  years,  and  not  witness  extreme 
cruelties  ;  a  northern  man,  and  one  who  is  not  a 
slaveholder,  would  be  the  last  to  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  witnessing  the  infliction  of  cruel  pun- 
ishments. 

PLANTATIONS. 

"A  majority  of  the  large  plantations  are 
on  the  banks  of  rivers,  far  from  the  public 
eye.  A  great  deal  of  low  marshy  ground  lies 
in  the  vicinity  of  most  of  the  rivers  at  the  south  ; 
consequently  the  main  roads  are  several  miles 
from  the  rivers,  and  generally  no  public  road 
passes  the  plantations.  A  stranger  traveling  on 
the  ridge,  would  think  himself  in  a  miserably 
poor  country  ;  but  every  two  or  three  miles  he 
will  sec  a  road  turning  off,  and  leading  into  the 
swamp ;  taking  one  of  those  roads,  and  travelmg 
from  two  to  six  miles,  he  will  come  to  a  large 
gate  ;  passing  which,  he  will  find  himself  in  a 
clearing  of  several  hundred  acres  of  the  first 
quality  of  land ;  passing  on,  he  wiU  see  30,  or 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Francis  Hawley. 


95 


40,  cr  more  slaves — men,  women,  boys  and  girk, 
at  tlieir  task,  cve-ry  one  with  a  hoe ;  or,  if  in  cot- 
ton picking  season,  with  their  baskets.  The 
overseer,  \vith  his  whip,  either  riding  or  standing 
about  among  them  ;  or  if  tlie  weather  is  hot,  sit- 
ting under  a  shade.  At  a  distance,  on  a  httle 
rising  ground,  if  such  there  be,  he  will  see  a  clus- 
ter of  liuts,  with  a  tolerable  house  in  the  midst, 
for  the  overseer.  Those  huts  are  from  ten  to 
fifteen  feet  square,  built  of  logs,  and  covered, 
not  with  shingles,  but  with  boards,  about  four 
feet  long,  split  out  of  pine  timber  with  a  \frow.' 
The  floors  are  very  commonly  made  in  this  way. 
Clay  is  first  worked  until  it  is  soft ;  it  is  then 
spread  upon  the  ground,  about  four  or  five  inches 
thick ;  when  it  dries,  it  becomes  nearly  as  hard 
as  a  brick  The  crevices  between  the  logs  are 
Homctimcs  filled  with  the  same.  These  huts 
generally  cost  the  master  nothing — they  are  com- 
monly built  by  the  negroes  at  night,  and  on  Sun- 
days, ,  When  a  slave  of  a  neighboring  plantation 
takes  a  wife,  or  to  use  the  phrase  common  at  the 
south,  'takes  up'  with  one  of  the  women,  he 
builds  a  hut,  and  it  is  called  her  house.  Upon 
entering  these  huts,  (not  as  comfortable  in  many 
in.stances  as  the  horse  stable,)  generally,  you 
will  find  no  chairs,  but  benches  and  stools  ;  no 
table,  no  bedstead,  and  no  bed,  except  a  blanket 
or  two,  and  a  few  rags  or  moss ;  in  some  in- 
stances a  knife  or  two,  but  very  rarely  a  fork. 
You  may  also  find  a  pot  or  skillet,  and  generally 
a  number  of  gourds,  which  serve  them  instead  of 
bowls  and  plates.  The  cruelties  practiced  on 
those  secluded  plantations,  the  judgment  day 
alone  caii  reveal.  Ob,  brother,  could  I  summon 
ten  slaves  from  ten  plantations  that  I  could  name, 
and  have  them  give  but  one  year's  historj-  of 
their  bondage,  it  would  thrill  the  land  with  hor- 
ror. Those  overseers  who  follow  the  business  of 
overseeing  for  a  livelihood,  are  generally  the 
most  unprincipled  and  abandoned  of  men.  Their 
wages  are  regulated  according  to  their  skill  in 
extorting  labor.  The  one  who  can  make  the 
most  bags  of  cotton,  with  a  given  number  of 
hands,  is  the  one  generally  sought  after ;  and 
there  Is  a  competition  among  them  to  see  who 
s^hall  make  the  largest  crop,  according  to  the 
hands  he  works.  I  ask,  what  must  be  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor  slaves,  under  the  unlimited 
power  of  such  men,  in  whom,  by  the  long-con- 
tinued practice  of  the  most  heart-rending  cruel- 
lies, every  feeling  of  humanity  has  been  obliterat- 
ed ?  But  it  may  be  asked,  cannot  the  slaves 
have  redress  by  appealing  to  their  masters  ?  In 
many  instances  it  is  impossible,  as  their  masters 
live  hundreds  cf  miles  off.  There  are  perhaps 
tiiousands  in  the  northern  slave  states,  [and  many 
in  the  free  states,]  who  own  plantations  in  the 
southern  slave  states,  and  many  more  spend  their 
Bummers  at  the  north,  or  at  the  various  watering 
places.  But  wliat  would  the  slaves  gain,  if  they 
should  appeal  to  the  master  ?  He  has  placed  the 
overseerover  them,  with  the  understanding  that  he 
will  make  as  large  a  crop  as  possible,  and  that  he  is 
to  have  entire  control,  and  manage  them  accord- 
ing to  his  own  judgment.  Now,  suppose  that  in  the 
midst  of  the  season,  the  slaves  make  complaint 
of  cruel  treatment.  The  master  cannot  get 
,  along  without  an  overseer — it  is  perhaps  very 
sickly  on  the  plantation — he  dare  not  risk  his 


own  life  there.  Overseers  are  all  engaged  at  that 
season,  and  if  he  takes  part  with  his  slaves  against 
the  overseer,  he  would  destroy  his  authority,  and 
very  likely  provoke  him  to  leave  his  service — 
which  would  of  course  be  a  verj'  great  injury  to 
him.  Thus,  in  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty, 
self-interest  would  prevent  the  master  from  pay- 
ing any  attention  to  the  complaints  of  his  slaves. 
And,  if  any  should  complain,  it  would  of  course 
come  to  the  ears  of  the  overseer,  and  the  com- 
plainant would  be  inhumanly  punished  for  it. 

CLOTHING. 

"The  rule,  where  slaves  are  hired  out,  is 
two  suits  of  clothes  per  year,  one  pair  of  shoes, 
and  one  blanket ;  but  as  it  relates  to  the  great 
body  of  the  slaves,  this  cannot  be  called  a  general 
rule.  On  many  plantations,  the  children  under 
ten  or  twelve  years  old,  go  entirely  naked — or,  if 
clothed  at  all,  they  have  nothing  more  than  a 
shirt.  The  cloth  is  of  the  coarsest  kind,  far  from 
being  durable  or  warm  ;  and  their  shoes  fre- 
quently coane  to  pieces  in  a  few  weeks.  I  have 
never  known  any  provision  made,  or  time  allow- 
ed for  the  washing  of  clothes.  If  they  wish  to 
wash,  as  they  have  generally  but  one  suit,  they 
go  after  their  day's  toil  to  some  stream,  build  a 
fire,  pull  off  their  clothes  and  wash  them  in  the 
stream,  and  dry  them  by  the  fire  ;  and  in  some 
instances  they  wear  their  clothes  until  they  are 
worn  off,  without  washing.  I  have  never  known 
an  instance  of  a  slaveholder  putting  himself  to 
any  expense,  that  his  slaves  might  have  decent 
clothes  for  the  Sabbath.  If,  by  making  backets, 
brooms,  mats,  &c.  at  night  or  on  Sundays,  the 
slaves  can  get  money  enough  to  buy  a  Sunday 
suit,  very  well.  I  have  never  known  an  instance 
of  a  slaveholder  furnishing  his  slaves  with  stock- 
ings or  mittens.  I  hnuw  that  the  slaves  suffer 
much,  and  no  doubt  many  die  in  consequence  of 
not  being  well  clothed. 

FOOD. 

"  In  the  grain-growing  part  of  the  south,  the 
slaves,  as  it  relates  to  food,  fare  tolerably 
well ;  but  in  the  cotton,  and  rice-growing,  and 
sugar-making  portion,  some  of  them  fare  badly. 
I  have  been  on  plantations  where,  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  slaves,  I  should  judge  they  were 
half-starved.  They  receive  their  allowance  very 
commonly  on  Sunday  morning.  They  are  left 
to  cook  it  as  they  please,  and  when  they  please. 
Many  slaveholders  rarely  give  their  slaves  meat, 
and  very  few  give  them  more  food  than  will 
keep  them  in  a  working  condition.  They  rarely 
ever  have  a  change  of  food.  I  have  never  known 
an  instance  of  slaves  on  plantations  being  fur- 
nished either  with  sugar,  butter,  cheese,  or  milk. 

WORK. 

"  If  the  slaves  on  plantations  were  well  fed 
and  clothed,  and  had  the  stimulus  of  wages, 
they  could  perhaps  in  general  perform  their  tasks 
without  injury.  The  horn  is  blown  soon  after 
the  dawn  of  day,  when  all  the  hands  destined  for 
the  field  must  be  'on  the  march.'  If  the  field  is 
far  from  their  huts,  they  take  their  breakfast  with 
them.  They  toil  till  about  ten  o'clock,  when 
they  eat  it.  They  then  continue  their  toil  till 
the  sun  is  set. 

"  A  neighbor  of  mine,  who  has  been  an  over- 
seer in  Alabama,  informs  me,  that  there  they  as- 
certain how  much  labor  a  slave  can  perform  in  a 


96 


Personal  ISarratives — Rev.  Francis  Hawlcy. 


day,  in  the  followinjr  manner.    When  they  com- 
mence a  new  cotton  field,  the  overseer  takes  his 
watch,  and  marks  how  long  it  takes  them  to  hoe 
one  row,  and  then  lays  oft'  the  task  accordingly. 
My  neighbor  alsj  inl'orms  me,  that  the  slaves  in 
Alabama  arc  worked  very  hard  ;  that  the  lash  is 
almost  universally  applied  at  the  close  of  the  day, 
iC  they  fail  to  perform  their   task   in  the  cotton- 
jjicking  season.     You  will  see   them,  with  their 
baskets  of  cotton,   slowly  bending  their  way  to 
the    cotton  house,   where    each   one's  basket  is 
weighed.     They  have  no  means  of  knowing  ac- 
curately, in  the  course  of  the  day,  how  they  make 
progrc.<;s;  so  that  they  are  in  suspense,  until  their 
basket  is  weighed.     Here  comes  the  mother,"  with 
her  children  ;  she   does  not  know  whether  her- 
self, or  children,  or  all  of  them,  must  take  the 
lash  ;  they  cannot  weigh  the  cotton  themselves — 
the  whole  must  be  trusted  to  the  overseer.  While 
the  weighing  goes  on,  all  is  still.  So  many  pounds 
short,  cries  the  overseer,  and  takes  up  his  whip, 
exclaiming,  '  Step  this  way,  you  d — n  lazy  scoun- 
drel,' or  '  bitch.'      The  poor  slave  begs,  and  pro- 
mises, but  to  no  purpose.   The  lash  is  applied  until 
the  overseer  is  satisfied.     Sometimes  the  whip, 
ping  is  deferred  until  the  weighing  is  all  over. 
I  have  said  that  all  must  be  trusted  to  the  over- 
seer.    If  he  owes  any  one  a  grudge,  or  wishes  to 
enjoy  the  fiendish  pleasure  of  whipping  a  little, 
(for  some  overseers  really  delight  in  it,)  they  have 
only  to  tell  a  falsehood  relative  to  the  weight  of 
their  basket ;  they  can  then  have  a   pretext  to 
gratify   their    diabolical    disposition ;    and    from 
(he  character  of  overseers,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
it    is  frequently  done.     On    all   plantations,  the 
male  and  female  slaves  fare  pretty  much  alike  ; 
those  who  are  with  child  are  driven  to  their  task 
till  within  a  few  days  of  the  time  of  their  deliv- 
ery ;  and  when  the  child  is  a  few  weeks  old,  the 
inothcr  must  again   go  to  the  field.     If  it  is  far 
f'rnm  her  hut,  she  must  take  her  babe  with  her, 
and  leave  it  in  the  care  of  some  of  the  children — 
perhaps  of  one  not  more  than  four  or  five  years 
old.     If  the  child  cries,  she  cannot  go  to  its  re- 
lief; the  eye  of  the  overseer  is  upon  her;  and  if, 
when  she  goes  to  nurse  it,  she  stays  a  little  longer 
than  the  overseer  thinks  necessary,  he  commands 
her  back  to  her  task,  and  perhaps  a  husband  and 
father  must  hear  and  witness    it  all.     Brother, 
you  cannot  begin  to  know  what  the  poor  slave 
mothers  suffer,  on  thousands  of  plantations  at 
the  south. 

"  I  will  now  give  a  few  facts,  showing  the 
workings  of  the  system.  Some  years  since,  a 
Presbyterian  minister  moved  from  North  Caro- 
lina to  Georgia.  He  had  a  negro  man  of  an 
uncommon  mind.  For  some  cause,  I  know  not 
what,  this  minister  whipped  him  most  unmerci- 
fully.  He  next  nearly  drowned  him  ;  he  then  put 
him  in  the  fence ;  this  is  done  by  lifting  up  the 
corner  of  a  '  worm'  fence,  and  then  putting  the 
feet  through  ;  the  rails  serve  as  stocks.  He  kept 
him  there  some  time,  how  long  I  was  not  inform- 
ed, but  the  poor  slave  died  in  a  few  days ;  and, 
if  I  was  rightly  informed,  nothing  was  done 
about  it,  either  in  church  or  state.  After  some 
time,   he   moved  back  to  North  Carolina,  and   is 

now  a  member  of Presbytery.     I  have  heard 

him  preach,  and  have  been  in  the  pulpit  with  him. 
May  God  forgive  me ! 


"  At  Laurel  Hill,  Richmond  county.  North 
Carolina,  it  was  reported  that  a  runaway  slave 
was  in  the  neighborhood.  A  number  of  young 
men  took  their  guns,  and  went  in  pursuit.  Some 
of  them  took  tlieir  station  near  the  stage  road, 
and  kept  on  the  look-out.  It  was  early  in  the 
evening — the  poor  slave  came  along,  when  the 
ambush  rushed  upon  him,  and  ordered  him  to 
surrender.  He  refused,  and  kept  them  off"  with 
his  club.  They  still  pressed  upon  him  with  their 
guns  presented  to  his  breast.  Without  seeming 
to  be  daunted,  he  caught  hold  of  the  muzzle  of 
one  of  the  guns,  and  came  near  getting  possession 
of  it.  At  length,  retreating  to  a  fence  on  one 
side  of  the  road,  he  sprang  over  into  a  corn-field, 
and  started  to  run  in  one  of  the  rows.  One  of 
the  young  men  stepped  to  the  fence,  fired,  and 
lodged  the  whole  charge  between  his  shoulders  ; 
he  fell,  and  died  in  a  short  time.  He  died  with- 
out telling  who  his  master  was,  or  whether  he  had 
any,  or  what  his  own  name  was,  or  where  he  was 
from.  A  hole  was  dug  by  the  side  of  the  road  , 
his  body  tumbled  into  it,  and  thus  ended  the 
whole  matter. 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  C.  a  Methodist  minister,  held  as 
his  slave  a  negro  man,  who  was  a  member  of 
his  own   church.     The  slave  was  considered  a 
very  pious  man,  had  the  confidence  of  his  mas- 
ter, and  all  who  knew  him,  and  if  I  recollect  right 
he  sometimes  attempted  to  preach.      Just  before 
the   Nat   Turner   insurrection,  in  Southamptoti 
county,  Virginia,  by  which  the  whole  south  was 
thrown  into  a  panic,  this  worthy  slave  obtained 
permission  to  visit  his  relatives,  who  resided  either 
in     Southampton,     or     the     county    adjoining. 
This  was  the  only  instance  that  ever  came  to 
my  knowledge,  of  a  slave  being  permitted  to  go 
so  far  to  visit  his  relatives.     He  went  and  return- 
ed according  to  agreement.     A  few  weeks  after 
his  return,  the  insurrection   took   place,  and  the 
whole  country  was   deepl)'  agitated.      Suspicion 
soon  fixed  on   this   slave.     Nat   Turner  \va«  a 
Baptist  minister,  and  the  south  became  exceed- 
ingly jealous  of  all  negro  preachers.     It  seemed 
as  if  the  whole  community  were  impressed  with 
the  belief  that  he  knew  all  about  it ;  that  he  and 
Nat  Turner  had  concerted  an  extensive  insurrec- 
rcction ;  and  so  confident  were  the/  in  this  be- 
lief, that  they  took  the  poor  slave,  ft'icd  him,  and 
hung  him.      It  was  all  done  in  a  /cw  days.     Ho 
protested  his  innocence  to  the  /ast.     After  the 
excitement  was  over,  many  were  ready  to  ac- 
knowledge that  they  believed  him  innocent.     Ho 
was  hung  upon  suspicion  .' 

"  In  R county,  North  Carolina,  lived  a 

Mr.  B.  who  had  the  name  of  being  a  cruel  mas- 
ter. Three  or  four  winters  since,  his  slaves  were 
engaged  in  clearing  a  piece  of  new  land.  He 
had  a  negro  girl,  ai)out  14  years  old,  whom  he 
had  severely  whipped  a  few'days  before,  for  not 
performing  'her  task.  She  again  failed.  The 
hands  left  the  field  for  home  ;  she  went  with  them 
a  part  of  the  way,  and  fell  behind  ;  but  the  ne- 
groes thought  she  would  soon  be  along;  the 
evening  passed  away,  and  she  did  not  come. 
They  finally  concluded  that  she  had  gone  back 
to  the  new  ground,  to  lie  by  the  log  heaps  that 
were  on  fire.  But  they  were  mistaken  :  she  had 
sat  down  by  the  foot  of  a  large  pine.  She  was 
thinly  clad— the  night  was  cold  and  rainy.     In 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Francis  Hawley. 


»7 


tlie  morning  the  poor  giil  was  found,  but  she  was 
speechless   and  died  in  a  short  time. 

'•  One  of  my  neighbors  sold  to  a  speculator  a 
negro  boy,  about  14  years  old.  It  was  more 
than  his  poor  mother  could  bear.  Her  reason 
fled,  and  she  became  a  perfect  maniac,  and  had 
to  be  kept  in  close  confinement.  She  would  oc- 
casionally get  out  and  run  off  to  the  neighbors. 
On  one  of  these  occasions  she  came  to  my  house. 
She  was  indeed  a  pitiable  object.  With  tears 
rolling  down  her  cheeks,  and  her  frame  shaking 
with  agony,  she  would  cry  out,  '  doiiH  you  hear 
him — they  are  whipping  him  noic,  and  he  is  call- 
ing for  me  I'  This  neighbor  of  mine,  who  tore 
the  boy  away  from  his  poor  mother,  and  thus 
broke  her  heart,  was  a  member  of  the  Presbyteri- 
an  church 


"  I  was  acquainted  with  a  very  wealthy  planter, 
on  the  Pedee  river,  in  South  Carolina,  who  ha.<! 
since  died  in  consequence  of  intemperance.  I( 
was  said  that  he  had  occasioned  the  death  of 
twelve  of  his  slaves,  by  compelling  them  to  work 
in  water,  opening  a  ditch  in  the  midst  of  wmter. 
The  disease  with  which  they  died  was  a  pleurisy. 

"  In  crossing  Pedee  river,  at  Cashway  Ferry,  1 
observed  that  the  ferryman  had  no  hair  on  either 
side  of  his  head.  I  asked  him  the  cause.  He 
informed  me  tiiat  it  was  caused  by  his  master's 
cane.  I  said,  you  have  a  very  bad  master.  'Yes, 
a  very  bad  master.'  I  understood  that  he  was 
once  a  member  of  Congress  from  South  Carolina. 

"  While  traveling  as  agent  for  the  North  Caro- 
lina Baptist  State  Convention,  I  attended  a  three 
days'  meeting  in  Gates  county.     Friday,  the  firoL 


"Mr.  S ,  of  Marion  District,   South  Cnro-    day,  passed  off.     Saturday  morning  came,  and 

lina,  informed  me  that  a  boy  was  killed  by  the    the  pastor  of  the  church,  who  lived  a  few  mileo 

overseer  on   Mr.  P ^'s  plantation.     T-'ie  boy    off,  did  not  make  his  appearance.     The  day  pass. 

was  engaged  in  driving  the  horses  in  a   cotton  i  ed  off,  and  na  news  from  the  pastor.     On  Sab- 
jrin.     The  driver  generally  sits  on  the  ond  oi  the    bath  morning,  he  came  hobbling  along,   having 


gm.  liie  driver  generally 
sweep.  Not  driving  to  suit  the  overseer,  lie 
knocked  him  off  with  the  butt  of  feis  wliip.  His 
skull  was  fractured.     He  died  \n  a  short  iime. 

"  A  man  of  my  acquaintance  in  South  Caro- 
lina, and  of  considerable  weslth,  had  an  only  son, 
wiwm  he  educated  for  the  bar  :  but  not  succeed- 
ing in  his  profession,  he  soon  returned  home. 
His  father  having  a  small  plantation  three  or 
four  miles  off,  placed  his  son  on  it  as  an  overseer. 
Following  the  example  of  Ins  father,  as  I  have 
good  reason  to  believe,  he  took  the  wife  of  one  of 
the  negro  men.  The  poor  slave  felt  himself 
greatly  injured,  and  expostulated  with  him.  The 
wretch  took  his  gun,  and  deliberately  shot  him. 
Providentially  he  only  wounded  him  badly. 
When  the  father  came,  and  undertook  to  remon- 
strate with  his  son  about  his  conduct,  he  threat- 
ened to  shoot  him  also !  and  finally,  took  the 
negro  womaa,  and  went  to  Alabama,  where  he 
still  resided  when  I  left  the  south. 

"  An  pfder  in  the  Presbyterian  church  related 
to  me  the  following. — '  A  speculator  with  his 
drove  of  negroes  was  passing  my  house,  and  I 
bought  a  little  girl,  nine  or  ten  years  old.  After 
a  few  months,  I  concluded  that  I  would  rather 
have  a  plough-boy.  Another  speculator  was 
passing,  and  I  sold  the  girl.  She  was  much  dis- 
tressed,  and  was  very  unwilling  to  leave.' — She 
had  been  with  him  long  enough  to  become  at- 
tached to  his  own  and  his  negro  children,  and  he 
concluded  by  saying,  that  in  view  of  the  little 
girl's  tears  and  cries,  he  had  determined  never  to 
do  the  like  again.  I  would  not  trust  him,  for  I 
know  him  to  be  a  very  avaricious  man. 

"  While  traveling  in  Anson  countj%  North  Ca- 
rolina, I  put  up  for  a  night  at  a  private  house. 
The  man  of  the  house  was  not  at  home  when  I 
stopped,  but  came  in  the  course  of  the  evening, 
and  was  noisy  and  profane,  and  nearly  drunk.  I 
retired  to  rest,  but  not  to  sleep ;  his  cursing  and 
swearing  were  enough  to  keep  a  regiment  awake. 
About  midnight  he  went  to  his  kitchen,  and 
called  out  his  two  slaves,  a  man  and  woman. 
His  object,  he  said,  was  to  whip  them.  They 
both  begged  and  promised,  but  to  no  purpose. 
The  whipping  began,  and  continued  for  some 
time.  Their  cries  might  have  been  heard  at  a 
distance. 

7 


but  little  use  of  one  foot.  He  soon  explained  : 
said  he  had  a  hired  negro  man,  who,  on  Saiur- 
day  morning,  gave  him  a  '  little  slack  jaw. ^  Not 
having  a  stick  at  hand,  he  fell  upon  him  with  his 
fist  and  foot,  and  in  kicking  him,  he  injured  his 
foot  so  seriouslj',  that  he  could  not  attend  meet- 
ing on  Saturday. 

"  Some  of  the  slaveholding  ministers  at  the 
south,  put  their  slaves  under  overseers,  or  hire 
them  out,   and  then  take  the    pastoral  care  of 

churches.      The  Rev.   Mr.  B ,  formerly  of 

Pennsylvania,  had  a  plantation  in  Marlborough 
District,  South  Carolina,  and  was  the  pastor  of 
a  church  in  Darlington  District.     The  Rev.  Mr. 

T ,  of  Johnson  county.  North  Carolina,  has  a 

plantation  in  Alabama. 

"I   was  present,    and   saw   the  Rev.    J 

W ,  of  Mecklenburg  county.  North  Carolina, 

hire  out  four  slaves  to  work  in  the  gold  mines  in 

Burke  county.  The  Rev.  H M ,  of  Orange 

county,  sold  for  $900,  a  negro  man  to  a  specula- 
tor, on  a  Monday  of  a  camp  meeting. 

"  Runaway  slaves  are  frequently  hunted  with 
gims  and  dogs.  /  was  once  out  on  such  an  excur- 
sion, with  my  rifle  and  two  dogs.  I  trust  the 
Lord  has  forgiven  me  this  heinous  wickedness  I 
We  did  not  take  the  runaways. 

"  Slaves  are  sometimes  most  mimercifully  pun- 
ished  for  trifling  offences,  or  mere  mistakes. 

"  As  it  relates  to  amalgamation,  I  can  say, 
that  I  have  been  in  respectable  famihes,  (so  call- 
ed,) where  I  could  distinguish  the  famih'  resem- 
blance in  the  slaves  who  waited  upon  the  table. 
I  once  hired  a  slave  who  belonged  to  his  own 
uncle.  It  is  so  common  for  the  female  slaves  to 
have  white  children,  that  little  or  nothing  is  ever 
said  about  it.  Very  few  inquiries  are  made  as  to 
who  the  father  is. 

"  Thus,  brother  ,  I  have  given  you  very 

briefly,  the  result,  in  part,  of  my  observations  and 
experience  relative  to  slavery.  You  can  make 
what  disposition  of  it  you  please.  I  am  willing 
that  my  name  should  go  to  the  world  with  what 
I  have  now  written. 

"Yours  affectionately, for  the  oppressed, 

"  Francis  Hawlet." 
Colebrook,  dmnecticut,  March  18,  1839. 


Personal  Narratives — Reuben  G.  Macy  and  Richard  Macy. 


TESTIMONY    OF    REUBEN    G.    MACY   AND   RICHARD  MACY. 


The  following  is  an  extract  of  a  letter  recently 
received  from  Charles  Marriott  of  Hudson, 
New  York.  Mr.  Marriott  is  an  elder  in  the  Re- 
ligious Society  of  Friends,  and  is  extensively 
known  and  respected. 

"  The  two  following  brief  statements,  arc  fur- 
nished by  Richard  Macy  and  Reuben  G.  Macy, 
brothers,  both  of  Hudson,  New  York.  They  are 
head  carpenters  by  trade,  and  have  been  well 
known  to  me  for  more  than  thirty  years,  as  esteem- 
ed members  of  the  Religious  Society  of  Friends. 
They  inform  me  that  during  their  stay  in  South 
<  Carolina,  a  number  more  similar  cases  to  those 
here  related,  came  under  their  notice,  which  to 
avoid  repetition  they  omit. 

C.  Marriott. 

TESTIMO.W    OF   REUBEN    G.    MACY. 

"  During  the  winter  of  1818  and  19,  I  resided 
on  an  island  near  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah 
river,  on  the  South  Carolina  side.  Most  of  the 
slaves  that  came  under  my  particular  notice,  be- 
longed to  a  widow  and  her  daughter,  in  whose  fa- 
mily I  lived.  No  white  man  belonged  to  the 
plantation.  Her  slaves  were  under  the  care  of 
an  overseer  who  came  once  a  week  to  give  orders, 
iind  settled  the  score  laid  up  against  such  as  their 
mistress  thought  deserved  punishment,  which  was 
from  twenty-tive  to  thirty  lashes  on  their  naked 
hacks,  with  a  whip  which  the  overseer  generally 
brought  with  him.  This  whip  had  a  stout  handle 
about  two  feet  long,  and  a  lash  about  four  and  a  half 
feet.  From  two  to  four  received  the  above,  I  be- 
licve  nearly  every  week  during  the  winter,  some- 
times in  my  presence,  and  always  in  my  hearing. 
1  examined  the  backs  and  shoulders  of  a  number 
of  the  men,  which  were  mostly  naked  while  they 
were  about  their  labor,  and  found  them  covered 
with  hard  ridges  in  every  direction.  One  day, 
while  busy  in  the  cotton  house,  hearing  a  noise,  I 
ran  to  the  door  and  saw  a  colored  woman  plead- 
ing with  the  overseer,  who  paid  no  attention  to 
her  cries,  but  tied  her  hands  together,  and  passed 
the  rope  over  a  beam,  over  head,  where  was  a 
platform  for  spreading  cotton,  he  then  drew  the 
rope  as  tight  as  he  could,  so  as  to  let  her  toes 
touch  the  ground ;  then  stripped  her  body  naked  to 
the  waist,  and  went  deliberately  to  work  with  his 
whip,  and  put  on  twenty-five  or  thirty  lashes,  she 
pleading  in  vain  all  the  time.  I  inquired,  the 
cause  of  such  treatment,  and  was  informed  it  was 
for  answering  her  mistress  rather  '  short.' " 

"A  woman  from  a  neighboring  plantation  came 
where  I  was,  on  a  visit ;  she  came  in  a  boat  row- 
ed by  Bix  slaves,  who,  according  to  the  common 
practice,  were  left  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and 
having  laid  them  down  in  the  boat  and  fallen 
asleep,  the  tide  fell,  and  the  water  filling  the  stern 
of  the  boat,  wet  their  mistresses  trunk  of  clothes. 
When  she  discovered  it,  she  called  them  up  near 
where  I  was,  and  compelled  them  to  whip  each 
ether,  till  they  all  had  received  a  severe  flogging. 
She  standing  by  with  a  whip  in  hei  hand  to  see 
that  they  did  not  spare  each  other.  Their  usual 
allowance  of  food  was  one  peck  of  com  per  week, 


which  was  dealt  out  to  them  every  first  day  of 
the  week,  and  such  as  were  not  there  to  receive 
their  portion  at  the  appointed  time,  had  to  live  as 
they  could  during  the  coming  week.  Each  one 
had  the  privilege  of  planting  a  small  piece  of 
ground,  and  raising  poultry  for  their  own  use 
which  they  generally  sold,  that  is,  such  as  did 
improve  the  privilege  wliich  were  but  few.  They 
had  nothing  allowed  them  besides  the  com,  ex- 
cept  one  quarter  of  beef  at  Christmas  which  a 
slave  brought  three  miles  on  his  head.  Thr.y 
were  allowed  three  days  rust  at  Christmas.  Their 
clothing  consisted  of  a  pair  of  trowscrs  and  jacket, 
niade  of  whitish  woollen  cloth  called  negro  cloth. 
Tine  women  had  nothing  but  a  petticoat,  and  a  very 
shorl  short-gown,  made  of  the  same  kind  of  cloth. 
Some  of  the  women  had  an  old  pair  of  shoes, 
but  they  generally  went  barefoot.  The  houses 
for  the  field  slaves  were  about  fourteen  feet  square, 
buiU  in  the  coarsest  manner,  having  but  one 
room,  -vvirhow.  any  chimney,  or  flooring,  v.'ith  a 
hole  at  the  roof  at  one  end  to  let  the  snioke  out. 

"  EacK  oiic  was  allowed  one  blanket  in  which 
they  rolled  themseVyes  up.  I  examined  their 
houses  but  could  not  discover  any  thing  like  a 
bed.  I  was  informed  tl.at  when  they  had  a  suf- 
ficiency  of  potatoes  the  slaves  were  allowed  some  ; 
but  the  season  that  I  was  there  they  did  not  raise 
more  than  were  waMcd  for  seed.  All  their  corn 
was  ground  in  one  hand-mill,  every  night  just  as 
much  as  was  necessary  for  the  familv,''then  each 
one  his  daily  y>ortion,  which  took  considerable 
time  in  the  night.  I  often  awoke  and  heard  the 
sound  of  the  mill.  Grindir^  the  corn  in  the 
night,  and  in  the  dark,  after  th^jr  dav'.s  labor  and 
the   want  of  other  food,  were  ^rcat   hardships. 

"  The  traveling  in  those  parts,  among  the  is- 
lands, was  altogether  with  boats,  rcwcd  by  from 
four  to  ten  slaves,  which  often  stopped •tt  our  plan- 
tation, and  staid  through  the  night,  when  the 
slaves,  after  rowing  through  the  day,  were  left  to 
shift  for  themselves  ;  and  when  they  went  to  Sa. 
vannahwith  a  load  of  cotton  they  were  obliged  to 
sleep  in  the  open  boats,  as  the  law  did  not  allow 
a  colored  pennon  to  be  out  after  eight  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  without  a  pass  from  his  master." 

TESTIMONY    OF    RICHARD    MACY. 

"  The  above  account  is  from  my  brother.  I 
was  at  work  on  Hilton  Head  about  twenty  miles 
north  of  my  brother,  during  the  same  winter. 
The  same  allowance  of  one  peck  of  corn  for  a 
week,  the  same  kind  of  houses  to  live  in,  and  the 
same  method  of  grinding  their  corn,  and  always 
in  the  night,  and  in  the  dark,  was  practiced  there. 

"  A  number  of  instances  of  severe  whipping 
came  under  my  notice.  The  first  was  I  his  : — two 
men  were  sent  out  to  saw  some  blocks  out  of 
large  live  oak  timber  on  which  to  raise  my  build. 
ing.  Their  saw  was  in  poor  order,  and  they 
sawed  them  badly,  for  which  their  master  strip, 
ped  them  naked  and  flogged  them. 

"  The  next  instance  was  a  boy  about  sixteen 
years  of  age.  He  had  crept  into  the  coach  to  sleep; 
after  two  or  three  nights  he  was  caught  by  tlie 
coach  driver,  a  northern  man,  and  stripped  entire^' 


Personal  Narratives — Mr.  Eleazar  Powell. 


99 


ly  naked,  and  whipped  without  mercy,  his  master 
looking  on. 

"  Another  instance.  The  overseer,  a  young 
white  man,  had  ordered  several  negroes,  a  boat's 
crew,  to  be  on  the  spot  at  a  given  time.  One  man 
did  not  appear  until  the  boat  had  gone.  The  over- 
seer was  very  angry  and  told  him  to  strip  and  be 
flogged  ;  he  being  slow,  was  told  if  he  did  not  in- 
stantly strip  oft  his  jacket,  he,  the  overseer,  would 
whip  it  off,  which  he  did  in  shreds,  whipping  him 
cruelly. 

''  The  man  ran  into  the  barrens  and  it  was  about 
a  month  before  they  caught  him.  Hu  was  nearly 
starved,  and  at  last  stole  a  turkey;  then  another, 
and  was  caught. 

"  Having  occasion  to  pass  a  plantation  very  early 
one  foggy  morning,  in  a  boat,  we  heard  the 
sound  of  the  whip,  before  we  could  see,  but  as 
we  drew  up  in  front  of  the  plantation,  we  could 
Bee  the  negroes  at  work  in  the  field.     The  over. 


seer  was  going  from  one  to  the  other  causing 
them  to  lay  down  their  hoe,  strip  oft"  their  gar- 
ment, hold  up  their  hands  and  receive  their  num- 
ber of  lashes.  Thus  he  went  on  from  one  to  the 
other  until  we  were  out  of  sight.  In  the  course 
of  the  winter  a  family  came  where  I  was,  on  a 
visit  from  a  neighboring  island ;  of  course,  in  a 
boat  with  negroes  to  row  them — one  of  these  a 
barber,  told  me  that  he  ran  away  about  two  year? 
before,  and  joined  a  company  of  negroes  who  had 
fled  to  the  swamps.  He  said  they  suifered  a  great 
deal — were  at  last  discovered  by  a  party  of  hun- 
ters, who  fired  among  them,  and  caused  them  to 
scatter.  Himself  and  one  more  fled  to  the  coast, 
took  a  boat  and  put  otf  to  sea,  a  storm  came  on 
and  swamped  or  upset  them,  and  his  partner  waf? 
drowned,  he  was  taken  up  by  a  passing  vessel 
and  returned  to  his  master. 

Richard  Macy. 
Hudson,  12  mo.  29th,  1838. 


TESTIMONY  OF  MR.  ELEAZAR  POWELL. 


Extract  ofa  letter  from  Mr.  William  Scott 
a  highly  respectable  citizen  of  Beaver  co.  Pennsyl- 
vania, dated  Jan.  7,  1839. 

Chippewa  Township,  Beaver  co.  Pa. 
Jan.  7,  1839. 

"  I  send  you  the  statement  of  Mr.  Eleazar  Pow 
ell,  who  was  bom,  and  has  mostly  resided  in  this 
township  from   his  birth.     His  character  for  so- 
briety and  truth  stands  above  impc?.chment. 
With  sentiments  of  esteem, 

I  am  your  friend, 

William  Scott. 

"In  the  month  of  December,  1836,  I  went  to 
the  State  of  Mississippi  to  work  at  my  trade, 
(masonry  and  bricklaying,)  and  continued  to 
work  in  the  counties  of  Adams  and  JefEsrson,  be- 
tween four  and  five  months.  In  following  my 
business  I  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  treat- 
ment of  slaves  in  several  places. 

"  In  Adams  county  I  built  a  chimney  for  a  man 
named  Joseph  Gwatney ;  he  had  forty-five  field 
hands  of  both  sexes.  The  field  in  which  they 
worked  at  that  time,  lay  about  two  miles  from 
the  house ;  the  hands  had  to  cook  and  eat  their 
breakfast,  prepare  their  dinner,  and  be  in  the  field 
at  daylight,  and  continue  there  till  dark.  In  the 
evening  the  cotton  they  had  picked  was  weighed, 
and  if  they  fell  short  of  their  task  they  were 
whipped.  One  night  I  attended  the  weighing — 
two  women  fell  short  of  their  task,  and  the  mas- 
ter ordered  the  black  driver  to  take  them  to  the 
quarters  and  flog  them ;  one  of  them  was  to  re- 
ceive twenty-five  lashes  and  pick  a  peck  of  cot- 
ton seed.  I  have  been  with  the  overseer  several 
times  through  the  negro  quarters.  The  huts  are 
generally  built  of  split  timber,  some  larger  than 
rails,  twelve  and  a  half  feet  wide  and  fourteen 
feet  long — some  with  and  some  without  chimneys, 
and  generally  without  floors  ;  they  were  generally 
without  daubing,  and  mostly  had  split  clapboards 
nailed  on  the  cracks  on  the  outside,  though  some 
were  without  even  that :  in  some  there  was  a  kind 
of  rough  bedstead,  made  from  rails,  polished  with 
the  axe,  and  pat  together  in  a  very  rough  man- 


ner, the  bottom  covered  with  clapboards,  and 
over  that  a  bundle  of  worn  out  clothes.  In  some 
huts  there  was  no  bedstead  at  all.  The  above 
description  applies  to  the  places  generally  with 
which  I  was  acquainted,  and  they  were  mostly 
old  settlements. 

"  In  the  east  pan  of  Jefferson  county  I  built  a 

chimney  for  a  man  named M'Coy  ;  he  had 

forty-seven  laboring  hands.  Near  where  I  was  at 
work,  M'Coy  had  ordered  one  of  his  slaves  to  set 
a  post  for  a  gate.  When  he  came  to  look  at  it,  he 
said  the  slave  had  not  set  it  in  the  right  place ; 
and  ordered  him  to  strip,  and  lie  down  on  his 
face  ;  telling  him  that  if  he  struggled,  or  attempt- 
ed to  get  up,  two  men,  who  had  been  nailed  to 
the  spot,  should  seize  and  hold  him  fast.  The 
slave  agreed  to  be  quiet,  and  M'Coy  commenced 
flogging  him  on  the  bare  back,  with  the  wagon 
whip.  After  some  time  the  sufferer  attempted 
to  get  up ;  one  of  the  slaves  standing  by,  seized 
him  by  the  feet  and  held  him  fast ;  upon  which 
he  yielded,  and  M'Coy  continued  to  flog  him  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes.  AVhen  he  was  up,  and  had 
put  on  his  trowsers,  the  blood  came  through  them. 

"  About  half  a  mde  from  M'Coy's  was  a  planta. 
tion  owned  by  his  step-daughter.  The  overseer's 
name  was  James  Farr,  of  whom  it  appears  Mrs. 
M'Coy's  waiting  woman  was  enamoured.  One 
night,  while  I  lived  there,  M'Coy  came  from 
Natchez,  about  10  o'clock  at  night.  He  said  that 
Dinah  was  gone,  and  wished  his  overseer  to  go 
with  him  to  Farr's  lodgings.  They  went  accord- 
ingly, one  to  each  door,  and  caught  Dinah  as  she 
ran  out,  she  was  partly  dressed  in  her  mistress's 
clothes  ;  M'Coy  whipped  her  unmerciftilly,  and 
she  afterwards  made  her  escape.  On  the  next 
day,  (Sabbath),  M'Coy  came  to  the  overseer's, 
where  I  lodged,  and  requested  him  and  me  to  look 
for  her,  as  he  was  afraid  that  she  had  hanged  her. 
self.  He  then  gave  me  the  particulars  of  the 
flogging.  He  stated  that  near  Farr's  he  had 
made  her  strip  and  lie  down,  and  had  flogged  her 
until  he  was  tired  ;  that  before  he  reached  home 
he  had  a  second  time  made  her  strip,  and  again 
flogged  her  until  he  was  tired ;  that  when  he 


100 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  William  Scales. 


reached  home  he  had  tied  her  to  a  peach-tree,  and 
after  getting  a  drink  had  flogged  her  until  he  was 
thirsty  again ;  and  while  he  went  to  get  a  drink 
the  woman  made  her  escape.  He  stated  that  he 
knew,  from  the  whipping  he  had  given  her,  there 
must  be  in  her  back  cuts  an  inch  deep.  He 
showed  the  place  where  she  had  been  tied  to  the 
tree  ;  there  appeared  to  be  as  much  blood  as  if  a 
liog  had  been  stuck  there.  The  woman  was 
found  on  Sabbath  evening,  near  the  spring,  and 
had  to  be  carried  into  the  house. 

"  While  I  lived  there  I  heard  M'Coy  say,  if  the 
slaves  did  not  raise  him  three  hundred  bales  of 
cotton  the  ensuing  season,  he  would  kill  every  ne- 
gro he  had. 

"  Another  case  of  flogging  came  under  my  no- 
tice : — Philip  O.  Hughes,  sheriff"  of  Jefferson  coun- 
ty, had  hired  a  slave  to  a  man,  whose  name  I  do 
not  recollect.  On  a  Sabbath  day  the  slave  had 
drank  somewhat  freely ;  he  was  ordered  by  the 
tavern  keeper,  (where  his  present  master  had  left 
his  horse  and  the  negro,)  to  stay  in  the  kitchen  ; 
the  negro  wished  to  be  out.  In  persisting  to  go 
out  he  was  knocked  down  three  times ;  and  after- 
wards flogged  until  another  young  man  and  my- 
self ran  about  hall'  a  mile,  having  been  drawn  by 
the  cries  of  the  negro  and  the  sound  of  the  whip. 
When  we  came  up,  a  number  of  men  that  had 
been  about  the  tavern,  were  whipping  him,  and 
at  intervals  would  ask  him  if  he  would  take  off" 
his  clothes.  At  seeing  them  drive  down  the 
stakes  for  a  regular  flogging  he  yielded,  and  took 
them  off".  They  then  flogged  him  until  satisfied. 
On  the  ne.xt  morning  I  saw  him,  and  his  panta- 
loons were  all  in  a  gore  of  blood. 

"  Daring  my  stay  in  Jefferson  county,  Philip  O. 
Hughes  v/as  out  one  day  with  his  gun — he  saw  a 
negro  at  some  distance,  with  a  club  in  one  hand 
and  an  ear  of  corn  in  the  other — Hughes  stepped 
behind  a  tree,  and  wailed  his  approach ;  he  sup- 
posed the  negro  to  be  a  runaway,  who  had  es- 
caped about  nine  months  before  from  his  master, 
living  not  very  far  distant.  The  negro  discovered 
Hughs  before  he  came  up,  and  started  to  run ;  he 
refusing   to   stop,   Hoghes    fired,    and   shot   him 


through  the  arm.  Through  loss  of  blood  the  ne- 
gro was  soon  taken  and  put  in  jail.  I  saw  Ms 
wound  twice  dressed,  and  heard  Hughes  make  the 
above  statement. 

"When  in  Jefferson  county  I  boarded  six 
weeks  in  Fayette,  the  county  town,  wilha  tavern 
keeper  named  James  Truly.  He  had  a  slave 
named  Lucy,  who  occupied  the  station  of  chamber 
maid  and  table  waiter.  One  day,  just  after  dinner, 
Mrs.  Truly  took  Lucy  and  bound  her  arms  round 
a  pine  sapling  behind  the  house,  and  commenced 
flogging  her  with  a  riding-whip  ;  and  when  tired 
would  take  her  chair  and  rest.  She  continued  thus, 
alternately  flogging  andresting,  for  at  least  an  hour 
and  a  half.  I  afterwards  learned  from  the  bar-keep- 
er, and  others,  that  the  woman's  offence  was  that 
she  had  bought  two  candles  to  set  on  the  table  the 
evening  before,  not  knowing  there  were  yet  some 
in  the  box.  I  did  not  see  the  act  of  flogging 
above  related ;  but  it  was  commenced  before  I 
left  the  house  after  dinner ;  and  my  work  not  be- 
ingmore  than  twenty  rods  from  the  house,  I  dis- 
tinctly heard  the  cries  of  the  woman  all  the  time, 
and  the  manner  of  tying  I  had  from  those  who 
did  see  it. 

''  While  I  boarded  at  Truly's,  an  overseer  shot 
a  negro  about  two  miles  northwest  of  Fayette,  be- 
longing  to  a  man  named  Hinds  Stuart.  I  heard 
Stuart  himself  state  the  particulars.  It  appeared 
that  the  negro's  wife  fell  under  the  overseer's  dis- 
pleasure, and  he  went  to  whip  her.  The  negro  said 
she  should  not  be  whipped.  The  overseer  then 
let  her  go,  and  ordered  him  to  be  seized.  The  negro, 
having  been  a  driver,  rolled  the  lash  of  his  whip 
round  his  hand,  and  said  he  would  not  be  whipped 
at  that  time.  The  overseer  repeated  his  orders. 
The  negro  took  up  a  hoe,  and  no)ie  dared  to  take 
hold  of  him.  The  overseerthcn  went  to  his  coat, 
that  he  had  laid  off  to  whip  the  negro's  wife,  and 
took  out  his  pistol  and  shot  him  dead.  His  mas- 
ter ordered  him  to  be  buried  in  a  hole  without  a 
coffin.  Stuart  stated  that  he  would  not  have 
taken  two  thousand  dollars  for  him.  No  punish, 
ment  was  inflicted  on  the  overseer. 

Eleazar  Powell,  Jr." 


TESTIMONY  ON  THE  AUTHORITY  OF  REV.  WM.  SCALES,  LYNDON,  VT. 


The  following  is  an  extract  of  a  letter  from  two 
professional  gentlemen  and  their  wives,  who  have 
lived  for  some  years  in  a  small  village  in  one  of 
the  slave  states.  They  are  all  persons  of  the  high- 
est respectability,  and  are  well  known  in  at  least 
one  of  the  New  England  states.  Their  names 
are  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery  Society ;  but  as  the  individuals 
would  doubtless  be  murdered  by  the  slaveholders, 
if  they  were  published,  the  Committee  feel  sacredly 
bound  to  withhold  them.  The  letter  was  ad- 
dressed to  a  respected  clergyman  in  New  England. 
The  writers  say : 

••  A  man  near  us  owned  a  valuable  slave — his 
best — most  faithful  servant.  In  a  gust  of  passion, 
he  struck  him  dead  with  a  lever,  or  stick  of  wood. 

"  During  the  years  '3G  and  '37,  the  following 
transpired.     A   slave   in   our  neighborhood  ran 


away  and  went  to  a  place  about  thirty  miles  dis- 
tant.  There  he  was  found  by  his  pursuers  on  horse- 
back, and  compelled  by  the  whip  to  rti7i  the  dis. 
tance  of  thirty  miles.  It  vi'as  an  exceedingly  liot 
day — and  within  a  few  hours  after  he  arrived  at 
the  end  of  his  journey  the  slave  was  dead. 

"  Another  slave  ran  away,  but  concluded  to  re- 
turn.  He  had  proceeded  some  distance  on  his  re- 
turn, when  he  was  met  by  a  company  of  two  or 
three  drivers,  who  raced,  whipped  and  abused 
him  until  he  fell  down  and  expired.  This  took 
place  on  the  Sabbath."  The  writer  after  speaking 
of  another  murder  of  a  slave  in  the  neighborhood, 
without  giving  the  circumstances,  say — "  There 

is  a  powerful  New  England  influence  at "  the 

village  where  they  reside — "  We  may  therefore 
suppose  that  there  would  be  as  little  of  barbarian 
cruelty  practiced  there  as  any  where  ; — at  least 
we  might  suppose  that  the  average  amount  of 
cruelty  in  that  vicinity  would  be  sufHcientlv 
favorable  to  the  side  of  slavery. — Describe  a  oir. 


Personal  Narratives — Joseph  Ide,  Esq. — Rev.  Phineas  Smith. 


101 


cle,  the  centre  of  which  shall  be , the  residence  ]  been  the  amount  of  murder  in  the  whole  slave 

of  the  writers,  and  the  radius  fifteen  miles,  and  in    territory  ?      The    whole   south  is   rife  with    the 
about  one  year  three,   and   I   think  four  slaves  I  crime  of  separating  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
have    been    murdered,   within  that  circle,  under  I  and  children." 
circumstances  of  horrid  cruelty. — What  must  have  | 


TESTIMONY    OF    JOSEPH    IDE,    ESQ. 


Mr.  Ide  is  a  respected  member  of  the  Baptist 
Church  in  Sheffield,  Caledonia  county,  Vt. ;  and 
recently  the  Postmaster  in  that  town.  He  spent  a 
few  months  at  the  south  in  the  years  1837  and  8. 
In  a  letter  to  the  Rev.  Wm.  Scales  of  Lyndon,  Vt. 
written  a  few  weeks  since,  Mr.  Ide  writes  as  fol- 
lows. 

"  In  answering  the  proposed  inquiries,  I  will 
say  first,  that  although  there  arc  various  other 
modes  resorted  to,  whipping  with  the  cowskin  is 
the  usual  mode  of  inflicting  punishment  on  the 
poor  slave.  I  have  never  actually  witnessed  a 
whipping  scene,  for  they  arc  usually  taken  into 
8ome  back  place  for  that  purpose ;  but  I  have 
often  heard  their  groans  and  screams  while  writh- 
ing under  the  lash  ;  and  have  seen  the  blood  flow 
from  their  torn  and  lacerated  skms  after  the  ven- 
geance of  the  inhuman  master  or  mistress  had 
been  glutted.  You  ask  if  the  woman  where  I 
boarded  whipped  a  slave  to  death.  I  can  give 
you  the  particulars  of  the  transaction  as  they 
were  related  to  me.  My  informant  was  a  gen- 
tleman— a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in 
Massachusetts — who   the  winter  before  boarded 

where  I  did.     He  said    that   Mrs.   T had  a 

female  slave  whom  she  used  to  whip  unmerciful- 
ly, and  on  one  occasion,  she  whipped  her  as  long 
as  she  had  strength,  and  after  the  poor  creature 
was  suff'ered  to  go,  she  crawled  oflf  into  a  cellar. 
As  she  did  not  immediately  retui-n,  search  was 
made,  and  she  was  found  dead  in  the  cellar,  and 
the  horrid  deed  was  kept  a  secret  in  the  family, 
and  it  was  reported  that  she  died  of  sickness. 
This  wretch  at  the  same  time  was  a  member  of  a 
Presbyterian  church.  Towards  her  slaves  she 
was  certainly  the  most  cruel  wretch  of  any  wo- 
man with  whom  I  was  ever  acquainted — yet  she 
was  nothing  more  than  a  slaveholder.  She  would 
deplore  slavery  as  much  as  I  did,  and  often  told 
me  she  was  much  of  an  abolitionist  as  I  was.  She 
was  constant  in  the  declaration  that  her  kind 
treatment  to  her  slaves  was  proverbial.  Thought 
I,  then  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  the  rest.  She 
has  often  told  me  of  the  cruel  treatment  of  the 
slaves  on  a  plantation  adjoining  her  faiher'.s  in  the 
low  country  of  South  Carolina.  She  says  she 
has  often  seen  them  driven  to  the  necessity  of 
eating  frogs  and  lizards  to  sustain  life.  As  to  the 
mode  of  living  generally,  my  information  is  rather 


limited,  being  with   few  exceptions  confined  to 
the  diiFerent  families  where  I  have  boarded.    My 
stopping  places  at  the  south   have  mostly  been  in 
cities.     In  them    the  slaves   are   better  fed  and 
clothed  than  on  plantations.     The  house  servants 
are  fed  on  what  the  families  leave.     But  they  are 
kept  short,  and   I  think  are  oftener  whipped   for 
stealing  something  to  eat  than  any  other  crime. 
On  plantations  their   food  is  principally  hommo- 
ny,  as  the  southerners  call  it.     It  is  simply  crack- 
ed corn  boiled.     This  probably  constitutes  seven- 
eights  of   their  living.      The   house-servants  in 
cities  are  generally   decently  clothed,  and  some 
favorite  ones  are  richly  dressed,  but  those  on  the 
plantations,  especially  in  their  dress,  if  it  can  be 
called  dress,  exhibit  the  most  haggard  and  squalid 
appearance.      I  have  frequently    seen  those   of 
both  sexes  more  than   two-thirds  naked.     I  have 
seen  from    forty  to   sixty,  male  and    female,   at 
work  in  a  field,  many  of  both  sexes  with  their 
bodies  entirely  naked — who  did  not  exhibit  signs 
of  shame    more  than    cattle.     As  I   did  not  go 
among  them  much  on  the  plantations,  I  have  had 
but  few  opportunities  for  examining  the  backs  of 
slaves — but  have  frequently  passed  where  they 
were  at  work,  and  been  occasionally  present  with 
them,  and  in  almost  every  case  there  were  marks 
of  violence  on  some  parts  of  them — every  age, 
sex  and  condition  being  liable  to  the  whip.     A 
son  of  the  gentleman  with  whom  I  boarded,  a 
young   man    about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  had 
a  plantation  and  eight  or  ten  slaves.     He  used  to 
boast  almost  every  night  of  whipping  some  of 
them.     One  day  he  related  to  me  a  case  of  whip- 
ping an  old  negro — I  should  judge  sixty  years  of 
age.     He  said  he  called  him  up  to  flog  him  for 
some  real  or  supposed  offence,  and  the  poor  old 
man,  being  pious,  asked  the  privilege  of  prajnng 
before  he  received  his  punishment.     He  said  he 
granted  him    the    favor,   and  to  use  his  own  ex- 
pression, '  The    old  nigger  knelt  down  and  pray, 
ed  for  me,  and  then  got  up  and   took  his  whip- 
ping.'    In  relation  to  negro  huts,  I  will  say  that 
planters  usually  own  large  tracts  of  land.     They 
have  extensive  clearings  and  a  beautiful  mansion 
house — and  generally  some    forty  or    fifty  rods 
from  the  dwelling  are  situated   the  negro  cabins, 
or   huts,    built   of  logs    in    the    rudest   manner. 
Some    consist   of   poles  rolled  up   together   and 
covered  with  mud  or  clay — many  of  them  not  as 
comfortable  as  northern  pig-sties." 


TESTIMONY    OF    REV.    PHINEAS    SMITH. 


Mri.  Smith  is  now  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Centreville,  Allegany  county,  N.  Y. 
He  has  recently  returned  from  a  residence  in  the 
slave  states,  and  the  American  slave  holdUig  set- 


lements  in  Texas.     The  following  is  an  extract 
of  a  letter  lately  received  from  him. 

"  You  inquire  respecting  instances  of  cruelty 
that  have  come  within  mv  knowledge.  I  reply^ 


102 


Personal  Narratives  —Mr.  Philemon  Bliss. 


Avarice  and  cruelty  constitute  the  very  gist  of 
the  whole  slave  system.  Many  of  the  enormities 
committed  upon  the  plantations  will  not  be  de- 
scribed till  God  brings  to  light  the  hidden  things 
of  darkness,  then  tlie  tears  and  groans  and  blood 
of  innocent  men,  women  and  children  will  be  re- 
vealed, and  the  oppressor's  spirit  must  confront 
that  of  his  victim. 

"  I  will  relate  a  case  of  torture  whicii  occurred 
on  the  Brasses  while  1  resided  a  few  miles  distant 
upon  the  Chocolate  Bayou.  The  case  should  be 
remembered  as  a  true  illustration  of  the  nature 
of  slavery,  as  it  exists  at  the  south.  The  facts 
are  these.  An  overseer  by  the  name  of  Alexan- 
der, notorious  for  his  cruelty,  was  found  dead  in 
the  timbered  lands  of  the  Brasses.  It  was  sup- 
posed that  he  was  murdered,  but  who  perpetrated 
the  act  was  unknown.  Two  black  men  were 
however  seized,  taken  into  the  Prairie  and  put  to 
the  torture.  A  physician  by  the  name  of  Parrolt 
from  Tennessee,  and  another  from  New  England 
by  the  name  of  Anson  Jones,  were  present  on  this 
occasion.  The  latter  gentleman  is  now  tlie 
Texan  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the  United 
States,  and  resides  at  AVashiiigton.  The  unfor- 
tunate slaves  being  stripped,  and  all  tilings  ar- 
ranged, the  torture  commenced  by  whipping  upon 
their  bare  backs.  Six  athletic  men  were  em- 
ployed in  this  scene  of  inhumanity,  the  names  of 
some  of  whom  I  well  remember.  There  was  one 
of  the  name  of  Brown,  and  one  or  two  of  the 
name  of  Patton.  Those  six  executioners  were 
successively  employed  in  cutting  up  the  bodies  of 
these  defenceless  slaves,  who  persisted  to  the  last 
in  the  avowal  of  their  innocence.  The  bloody 
whip  was  however  kept  in  motion  till  savage  bar- 
barity itself  was  glutted.  When  this  was  ac- 
complished, the  bleeding  victims  were  re-convey- 
ed  to  the  inclosure  of  the  mansion  house  where 
they  were  deposited  for  a  few  moments.  '  Tlie 
dying  groans  however  incommoding  the  ladies, 
they  were  taken  to  a  back  shed  where  one  of  them 
soon  expired*  '  The  life  of  tlie  other  slave  was 
for  a  time  despaired  of,  but  after  hanging  over 
the  grave  for  months,  he  at  length  so  far  recover- 
ed as  to  walk  about  and  labor  at  light  work. 
These  facts  cannot  be  controverted.  They  were 
disclosed  under  the  solemnity  of  an  oath,  at  Co- 
lumbia, in  a  court  of  justice.  I  was  present,  and 
shall  never  forget  them.  The  testimonj'  of  Drs. 
Parrott  and  Jones  was  most  appalling.  I  seem 
to  hear  the  death-groans  of  that  murdered  man. 
His  cries    for   mercy  and  protestations  of  inno- 

*  The  words  of  Dr.  Parrott,  a  witness  on  the  trial  hereaf- 
(HT  referred  to. 


cence  fell  upon  adamantine  hearts.  The  facts 
above  stated,  and  others  in  relation  to  this  scene 
of  cruelty  came  to  light  in  the  following  manner. 
The  master  of  the  murdered  man  commenced 
legal  process  against  the  actors  in  this  tragedy  for 
the  recovery  of  the  value  of  the  chattel,  as  one 
would  institute  a  suit  for  a  horse  or  an  ox  that 
had  been  unlawfully  killed.  It  was  a  suit  for  the 
recovery  of  damages  merely.  No  indictment  wa^ 
even  dreamed  of.  Among  the  witnesses  brought 
upon  tlie  stand  in  the  progress  of  this  cause  were 
the  physicians,  Parrott  and  Jones  above  named. 
The  part  which  they  were  called  to  act  in  this 
affair  was,  it  is  said,  to  examine  the  pulse  of  the 
victims  during  the  process  of  torture.  But  they 
were  mistaken  as  to  the  quantum  of  torture 
which  a  human  being  can  undergo  and  not  die 
under  it.  Can  it  be  believed  that  one  of  these 
physicians  was  born  and  educated  in  the  land  of 
the  pilgrims  ?  Yes, -in  my  own  native  New  En- 
gland.  It  is  even  so  I  The  stone-Iike  apathy  ma- 
nifested  at  the  trial  of  the  above  cause,  and  the 
screams  and  the  death-groans  of  an  innocent  man, 
as  developed  by  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses, 
can  never  be  obliterated  from  my  memorv.  They 
form  an  era  in  my  life,  a  point  to  which  I  look 
back  with  horror. 

"  Another  case  of  cruelty  occurred  on  the  San 
Bernard  near  Chance  Prairie,  where  I  resided  for 
sometime.  The  facts  were  these.  A  slave  manfled 
from  his  master,  (Mr.  Sweeny)  and  being  closely 
pursued  by  the  overseer  and  a  son  of  the  owner, 
he  stepped  a  few  yards  in  the  Bernard  and  placed 
himself  upon  a  root,  from  which  there  was 
no  possibility  of  his  escape,  for  he  could  not 
swim.  In  this  situation  he  was  fired  upon  with 
a  blunderbuss  loaded  heavily  with  ball  and  grape 
shot.  The  overseer  who  shot  the  gun  was  at  a 
distance  of  a  few  feet  only.  The  charge  entered 
the  body  of  the  negro  near  the  groin.  He  was 
conveyed  to  the  plantation,  lingered  in  inexpres- 
sible agony  a  few  days  and  expired.  A  physician 
was  called,  but  medical  and  surgical  skill  was 
unavailing.  No  notice  whatever  was  taken  of 
this  murder  by  the  public  authorities,  and  the 
murderer  was  not  discharged  from  the  service  of 
his  employer. 

"  When  slaves  flee,  as  they  not  unfrequently  do, 
to  the  timbered  lands  of  Texas,  they  are  hunted 
with  guns  and  dogs. 

"The  sufferings  of  the  slave  not  unfrequently 
drive  him  to  despair  and  suicide.  At  a  plantation 
on  the  San  Bernard,  where  there  were  but  five 
slaves,  two  during  the  same  year  committed  sui- 
cide by  drowning." 


TESTIMONY  OF  PHILEMON  BLISS,  ESQ. 


Mr.  Bliss  is  a  highly  respectable  member  of 
the  bar,  in  Elyria,  Lorain  Co.  Oliio,  and  member 
of  the  Presbyterian  church,  in  that  place.  He 
resided  in  Florida,  during  the  years  1834  and  5. 

The  following  extracts  arc  from  letters,  writ- 
ten by  Mr.  B.  in  1835,  while  residing  on  a  plan- 
tation near  Tallahassee,  and  published  soon  after 
in  the  Ohio  Atlas  ;    also  from   letters  written  in 


1836,  and  pubhshed  in  the  New  York  Evange- 
list. 

"  In  speakingof  slavery  as  it  is,  I  hardly  know 
where  to  begin.  The  physical  condition  of  the  slave 
is  far  from  being  accurately  known  at  the  north. 
Gentlemen  traveling  in  the  south  can  know 
nothing  of  it.  Tiioy  must  make  the  south  their 
residence ",  they  must  live  on  plantations,  before 
they  can  have  any  opportunity  of  judging  of  the 


Personal  Narratives — Philemon  Bliss. 


103 


slave.  I  resided  in  Augustine  five  months,  and 
had  I  not  made  particular  inquiries,  which  most 
northern  visitors  very  seldom  or  never  do,  I 
should  have  left  there  with  the  impression  that 
the  slaves  were  generally  very  well  treated,  and 
were  a  happy  people.  Such  is  the  report  of 
many  northern  travelers  who  have  no  more  op 
portunity  of  knowing  their  real  condition  than  if 
they  had  remained  at  home.  What  confidence 
could  we  place  in  the  reports  of  the  traveler, 
relative  to  the  condition  of  the  Irish  peasantry, 
who  formed  his  opinion  from  the  appearance  of  the 
waiters  at  a  Dublin  hotel,  or  the  household  ser- 
vants of  a  coantry  gentleman  ?  And  it  is  not 
often  on  plantations  even,  ih&t  strangers  can  wit- 
ness the  p:inlshment  of  the  slave .  I  was  conversing 
the  other  day  with  a  neighboring  planter,  upon  the 
brutal  treatment  of  the  slaves  which  I  had  wit- 
nessed :  he  remarked,  that  had  I  been  with  him 
I  should  not  hive  seen  this.  "  When  I  whip 
niggers,  I  take  them  put  of  sight  and  hearing." 
Such  being  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  stran- 
ger's ascertaining  the  treatment  of  the  slaves,  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  gentlemen,  of  un- 
doubted veracity,  should  give  directly  false  state. 
ments  relative  to  it.  But  facts  cannot  lie,  and  in 
giving  these  I  confine  myself  to  what  has  come 
under  my  ovn  personal  observation. 

"  The  negroes  commence  labor  by  daylight  in  the 
morning,  and,  excepting  the  plowboys,  wlio  must 
feed  and  rest  their  horses,  do  not  leave  the  field 
till  dark  in  the  evening.  There  is  a  good  deal  of 
cont^-^ntion  among  planters,  who  shall  make  the 
most  cotton  to  the  hand,  or,  who  shall  drive  their 
negroes  the  hardest  ;  and  I  have  heard  bets  made 
and  staked  upon  the  issue  of  the  crops.  Col.  W. 
was  boasting  of  his  large  crops,  and  swore  that 
'  he  made  for  his  force,  the  largest  crops  in  the 
country.'  He  was  disputed  of  course.  On  ri- 
ding home  in  companv  with  Mr.  C.  the  conver- 
sation turned  upon  Col.  W.  My  companion  re- 
marked, that  though  Col.  W.  had  the  reputation 
of  making  a  large  crop,  yet  he  could  beat  him 
himself,  and  did  do  it  the  last  year.  I  remarked 
that  I  considered  it  no  honor  to  Col.  W.  to  drive 
his  slaves  to  death  to  make  a  large  crop.  I  have 
heard  no  more  about  large  crops  from  him  since. 
Drivers  or  overseers  usually  drive  the  slaves 
worse  than  masters. — Their  reputation  for  good 
overseers  depends  in  a  great  measure  upon  the 
crops  they  make,  and  the  death  of  a  slave  is  no 
loss  to  them. 

"  Of  the  extentand  cruelty  of  the  punishment  of 
the  slave,  the  northern  public  know  nothing. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case  they  can  know  little, 
as  I  have  before  mentioned, 

''  I  hare  seen  a  woman,  a  mother,  compelled,  in 
the  presence  of  her  master  and  mistress,  to  hold 
up  her  clothes,  and  endure  the  whip  of  the  driver 
on  the  naked  body  for  more  than  tioenty  minutes, 
and  while  her  cries  would  have  rent  the  heart  of 
anyone,  who  had  not  hardened  himself  to  human 
suffering.  Her  master  and  mistress  were  con- 
versing with  apparent  indifference.  What  was 
her  crime  ?  She  had  a  task  given  her  of  sewing 
which  she  must  finish  that  day.  Late  at  night 
she  finished  it ;  but  the  stitches  icere  too  long, 
and  she  must  bo  whipped.  The  same  was  repeat- 
ed three  or  four  nights  for  the  same  offence. 
/  have  seen  a  man  tied  to  a  tree,  hands  and  feet, 


and  receive  305  blows  with  the  paddle*  on  the- 
fleshy  parts  of  the  body.  Two  others  received 
the  same  kind  of  punishment  at  the  time,  though 
I  did  not  count  the  blows.  One  received  230 
lashes.  Their  crime  was  stealing  mutton.  I 
ha.ve  frequently  heard  the  shrieks  of  the  slaves, 
male  and  female,  accompanied  by  the  strokes  of 
the  paddle  or  whip,  wh.'n  I  have  not  gone  near 
the  scene  of  horror.  I  knew  not  tlieir  crimes, 
excepting  of  one  woman,  which  was  stealing; 
/oMr/)o/aioes  to  eat  with  her  bread!  The  more 
common  number  of  lashes  inflicted  was  fifty  or 
eighty  ;  and  this  I  saw  not  once  or  twice,  but  so 
frequently  that  I  can  not  tell  the  number  of  times 
I  have  seen  it.  So  frequently,  that  my  own  heart 
was  becoming  so  hardened  that  I  could  witness 
with  comparative  indifference,  the  female  writhe 
under  the  lash,  and  her  shrieks  and  cries  for 
mercy  ceased  to  pierce  my  heart  with  that  keen- 
ness, or  give  me  that  anguish  which  they  first 
caused.  It  was  not  always  that  I  could  learn 
their  crimes  ;  but  of  those  I  did  learn,  the  most 
common  was  non-performance  of  tasks.  I  have 
seen  men  strip  and  receive  from  one  to  three 
hundred  strokes  of  the  whip  and  paddle.  My 
studies  and  meditations  were  almost  nightly  in- 
terrupted by  the  cries  of  the  victims  of  cruelty 
and  avarice.  Tom,  a  slave  of  Col.  N.  obtained 
permission  of  his  overseer  on  Sunday,  to  visit  his 
son,  on  a  ncigliboring  plantation,  belonging  in  part 
to  his  master,  but  neglected  to  take  a  "  pass." 
Upon  its  being  demanded  by  the  other  overseer, 
he  replied  that  he  had  permission  to  come,  and 
that  his  having  a  mule  was  sufficient  evidence  of 
it,  and  if  he  did  not  consider  it  as  such,  he  could 
take  him  up.  The  overseer  replied  he  would 
take  him  up  ;  giving  him  at  the  same  time  a 
blow  on  the  arm  with  a  stick  he  held  in  his  hand, 
sufficient  to  lame  it  for  some  time.  Tlie  negro 
collared  him,  and  thi'ew  him  ;  and  on  the  over- 
seer's commanding  him  to  submit  to  be  tied  and 
whipped,  he  said  he  would  not  bo  whipped  by 
him  but  would  leave  it  to  massa  J.  They  came, 
to  massa  J.'s.  I  was  thefe.  After  the  overseer 
had  related  the  case  as  above,  he  was  blamed 
for  not  shooting  or  stabbing  him  at  once. — After 
dinner  the  negro  was  tied,  and  the  whip  given  to 
the  overseer,  and  he  used  it  witii  a  severity  that 
was  shocking.  I  know  not  how  many  lashes 
were  given,  but  from  his  shoulders  to  his  heels 
there  was  not  a  spot  unridged  !  and  at  almost 
ever}^  stroke  the  blood  flowed.  He  could  not 
have  received  less  than  300,  irell  laid  on.  But 
his  offence  was  great,  almost  the  greatest  known, 
laying  hands  on  a  white  man  !  Had  he  struck 
the  overseer,  under  any  provocation,  he  would 
have  been  in  some  way  disfigured,  perhaps  by 
the  loss  of  his  ears,  in  addition  to  a  whipping  ; 
or  he  might  have  been  hung.  The  most  com 
mon  cause  of  punishments  is,  not  finishing  tasks. 
"  But  it  would  be  tedious  mentioning  further 
particulars.  The  negro  has  no  other  inducement 
to  work  but  the  lash  ;  and  as  man  never  acts 
without  motive,  the  lash  must  be  used  so  long 
as  all  other  motives  are  withheld.  Hence  cor- 
poreal punishment  is  a  necessary  part  of  slavery. 
"  Punishme-.its  for  runaways  are  usually  severe. 

*  A  piece  of  oa'v  limber  two  and  a  half  feet  long,  flat  and 
wide  at  one  end. 


104 


Personal  Narratives — Philemon  Bliss. 


Once  whipping  is  not  sufficient.  I  have  known 
runaways  to  be  whipped  for  six  or  seven  nights 
in  succession  for  one  oftlnce.  I  have  known 
others  who,  with  pinioned  hands,  and  a  chain 
extending  from  an  iron  collar  on  their  neck, 
to  the  saddle  of  tlieir  master's  iiorse,  have  been 
tu-ivcn  at  a  smart  trot,  one  or  two  hundred  miles, 
iieing  compelled  to  ford  water  courses,  their 
drivers,  according  to  their  own  confession,  not 
abating  a  whit  in  the  rapidity  of  their  journey  for 
the  ease  of  the  slave.  One  tied  a  kettle  of  sand  to 
his  slave  to  render  his  journey  more  arduous. 

''  Various  arc  the  instruments  of  torture  devised 
to  keep  the  slave  in  subjection.  The  stocks  are 
sometimes  used.  Sometimes  blocks  are  filled 
with  pegs  and  nails,  and  the  slave  compelled  to 
stand  upon  them. 

"  While  stopping  on  the  plantation  of  a  Mr.  C. 
I  saw  a  whip  with  a  knotted  lash  lying  on  the 
table,  and  inquired  of  my  companion,  who  was 
also  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  C.'s,  if  he  used  that 
to  whip  his  negroes  ?  "  Oh,"  says  he,  "  Mr.  C. 
is  not  severe  with  his  hands.  He  never  whips 
very  hard.  The  knots  in  the  lash  are  so  large 
that  he  does  not  usually  draw  blood  in  whip, 
ping  them." 

''  It  was  principally  from  hearing  the  conversa- 
tion of  southern  men  on  the  subject,  that  I  judge 
of  the  cruelty  that  is  generally  practiced  toward 
slaves.  They  will  deny  tliat  slaves  are  generally 
ill  treated  ;  but  ask  them  if  they  are  not  whipped 
for  certain  olP3nces,  which  cither  a  freeman 
would  have  no  temptation  to  commit,  or  which 
would  not  be  an  offence  in  any  but  a  slave,  and 
for  non.pcrformance  of  tasks,  they  will  answer 
promptly  in  the  affirmative.  And  frequently 
have  I  heard  them  excuse  their  cruelty  by  citing 
Mr.  A.  or  Mr.  B.  who  is  a  Christian,  or  Mr.  G. 
a  preacher,  or  Mr.  D.  from  the  north,  who 
"  drives  his  hands  tighter,  and  whips  them  hard- 
er, than  we  ever  do."  Driving  negroes  to  the 
utmost  extent  of  their  ability,  with  occasionally  a 
hundred  lashes  or  more,  and  a  few  switchings  in 
the  field  if  they  hang  taick  in  the  driving  seasons, 
viz  :  in  the  hoing  and  picking  months,  is  perfect- 
ly consistent  with  good  treatment ! 

"  While  traveling  across  the  Peninsula  in  a 
stage,  in  company  with  a  northern  gentleman, 
and  southern  lady,  of  great  worth  and  piety,  a 
dispute  arose  respecting  the  general  treatment 
of  slaves,  the  gentleman  contending  that  their 
treatment  was  generally  good — '  O,  no!'  inter- 
rupted the  lady,  '  you  can  know  nothing  of  the 
treatment  they  receive  on  the  plantations.  Peo- 
ple here  do  whip  the  poor  negroes  most  cruelly, 
and  many  half  starve  tlieni.  You  have  neither 
of  you  had  opportunity  to  know  scarcely  any 
thing  of  the  cruelties  that  are  practiced  in  this 
country,'  and  more  to  the  same  eiicct.  I  met  with 
several  others,  besides  this  lady,  who  appeared  to 
feel  for  the  sins  ol  the  land,  but  they  are  few  and 
scattered,  and  not  usually  of  sufficiently  stern 
mould  to  withstand  the  popular  wave. 

"  Masters  arc  not  forward  to  publish  tlieir 
"  domestic  regulations,"  and  as  neighbors  are 
usually  several  miles  apart,  one's  observation 
must  be  limited.  Hence  the  few  instances  of 
cruelty  which  break  out  can  be  but  a  fraction  of 
what  is  practised.  A  planter.  :■.  professor  of  re- 
ligion, in    conversation    \:po);  ■     ■  universality  of 


whipping,  remarked  that  a  planter  in  G ,  who 

had  whipped  a  great  deal,  at  length  got  tired 
of  it,  and  invented  tlio  following  excellent 
method  of  punishment,  which  I  saw  practised 
while  I  was  paying  him  a  visit.  The  negro  was 
])laced  in  a  sitting  position,  with  his  hands  made 
last  above  his  head,  and  feet  in  the  slocks,  so 
that  he  could  not  move  an3'  part  of  the  body. 

"  The  master  retired,  intending  to  leave  him  tiJl 
morning,  but  we  were  awakened  in  the  night  by 
the  groans  of  the  negro,  wiiich  were  so  doleful 
that  we  feared  he  was  dying.  We  went  to  him, 
and  found  him  covered  with  a  cold  sweat,  and 
almost  gone.     He  could    not  have  lived  an  hour 

longer.      Mr. found    the    '  stocks'   such    an 

effective  punishment,  that  it  almost  superseded 
the  whip." 

"  How  much  do  you  give  yoiu-  niggers  for  a 

task  while  hoeing  cotton,"    inquired  Mr.  C 

of  his  neighbor  Mr.  H . 

H.  "  I  give  my  men  an  acre  and  a  quarter,  and 
my  women  an  acre."* 

C.  "  Well,  that  is  a  fair  task.  Niggers  do  a 
heap  better  if  they  are  drove  pretty  tight." 

H.  "  O  yes,  I  have  driven  mine  into  complete 
subordination.  When  I  first  bought  them  they 
were  discontented  and  wished  me  to  sell  them, 
but  I  soon  whipped  that  out  of  them  ;  and  they 
now  work  very  contentedly  1" 

C.  "  Does  Mary  keep  up  with  the  rest  ?" 

H.  "  No,  she  does'nt  often  finish  the  task  alone, 
she  has  to  get  Sam  to  help  her  out  after  he  has 
done  his,  to  save  her  a  whipping.  There's  no 
other  way  but  to  be  severe  with  them." 

C.  "  No  other,  sir,  if  )'ou  favor  a  nigger  you 
spoil  him." 

"  The  whip  is  considered  as  necessary  on  a  plan- 
tation as  the  plough  ;  and  its  use  is  almost  as 
common.  The  negro  whip  is  the  common  team- 
ster's  whip  with  a  black  leather  stock,  and  a  short, 
fine,  knotted  lash.  The  paddle  is  also  frequently 
used,  sometimes  with  holes  bored  in  the  flattened 
end.  The  ladies  (!)  in  chastising  their  domestic 
servants,  generally  use  the  cowhide.  I  have 
knov.'n  some  use  shovel  and  tongs.  It  is,  how- 
ever, more  common  to  commit  them  to  the  driver 
to  be  whipped.  The  manner  of  whipping  is  as 
follows  :  The  negro  is  tied  by  his  hands,  and 
sometimes  feet,  to  a  post  or  tree,  and  stripped  to 
the  skin.  The  female  slave  is  not  always  tied. 
The  number  of  lashes  depends  upon  the  character 
for  severity  of  the  master  or  overseer. 

"  Another  instrument  of  torture  is  sometimes 
used,  how  extensively  I  know  not.  The  negro, 
or,  in  the  case  which  came  to  my  knowledge, 
the  negress  was  compelled  to  stand  barefoot 
upon  a  block  filled  with  sharp  pegs  and  nails  for 
two  nr  three  hours.  In  case  of  sickness,  if  the 
master  or  overseer  thinks  them  seriously  ill,  they 
are  taken  care  of,  but  their  complaints  are  usual- 
ly not  much  heeded.  A  physician  tcld  me  that 
he  was  employed  by  a  planter  last  winter  to  go 
to  a  plantation  of  his  in  the  country,  as  many  'if 
the  negroes  were  sick.  Says  he — "  I  found  them 
in  a  most  miserable  condition.  Tiic  weather 
was  cold,  and  the  negroes  were  barefoot,  with 
hardly  enough,  of  cotton  clothing  to  cover  their 
nakedness.     Those  who  had  huts  to  shelter  them 

*  (Cotton  is  planted  in  drilla  about  three  feet  apart,  and  ia 
hilled  like  corn. 


Personal  Narratives — Rev.  Wm.  A.  Chapin. 


105 


were  obliged  to  build  thcra  nights  and  Sundays. 
Many  were  sick  and  some  had  died.  I  had  the 
sick  taken  to  an  older  plantation  ot"  their 
masters,  where  they  could  be  made  comfortable, 
and  they  recovered.  I  directed  that  they  should 
not  go  to  work  till  after  sunrise,  and  should  not' 
work  in  the  rain  till  their  health  became  estabhsh- 
ed.  But  the  overseer  refusing  to  permit  it,  1  de- 
clined attending  on  them  farther.  I  wp,s  call- 
ed,' continued  he,  '  by  the  overseer  of  another 
plawtation  to  see  oncof  the  men.  I  found  him 
lying  by  the  side  of  a  log  in  great  pain.  I  asked 
him  how  he  did,  '  O,'  says  he,  '  I'm  most  dead, 
can  live  but  little  longer.'  How  long  have  you 
been  sick  ?     '  I've  feit  for  more  than  six  weeks 


as  though  I  could  hardly  slir.'  Why  didn't  you 
tell  your  master,  you  was  sick  ?  '  I  couldn't  see 
my  master,  and  the  overseer  always  whips  us 
when  we  complain,  I  could  not  stand  a  whip- 
ping.' I  did  all  I  could  for  the  poor  fellow,  but 
his  lungs  tvere  rotten.  He  died  in  three  days 
from  the  time  he  left  off  work.'  The  cruelty  of 
that  overseer  is  such  that  the  negroes  almost 
tremble  at  his  name.  Yet  he  gets  a  high  salary, 
for  he  makes  the  largest  crop  of  any  other  man 
in  the  neighborhood,  though  none  but  the  hard, 
iest  negroes  can  stand  it  under  him.  "  That 
man,"  says  the  Doctor,  "  would  be  hung  in  ray 
country."     He  was  a  German. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REV.  WILLIAM  A.  CHAPIN. 


Rev.  WiLLi.vM  Scales,  of  Lyndon,  Vermont, 
has  furnished  the  following  testimony,  under  date 
of  Dec.  15,  1838. 

"  I  send  you  an  extract  from  a  letter  that  I 
have  just  received,  which  you  may  use  ad  libitum. 
The  letter  is  from  Rev.  Wra.  A.  Chapin,  Greens, 
borough,  Vermont.  To  one  who  is  acquainted 
with  Mr.  C.  his  opinion  and  statements  must 
carry  conviction  even  to  the  most  obstinate  and 
incredulous.  He  observes,  '  I  resided,  as  a  teach- 
er, nearly  two  years  in  the  family  of  Carroll  Webb, 
Esq.,  of  Hampstcad,  New  Kent  co.  about  twenty 
miles  from  Richmond,  Virginia.  Mr.  Webb  had 
three  or  four  plantations,  and  was  considered  one 
of  the  two  wealthiest  men  in  the  county  :  it  was 
supposed  he  owned  about  two  hundred  slaves.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
was  elected  an  elder  vi'hile  I  was  with  him.  He 
was  a  native  of  Virginia,  but  a  graduate  of  a  New- 
England  college. 

"  '  The  slaves  were  called  in  the  morning  before 
daylight,  I  believe  at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  that 
they  might  prepare  their  food,  and  be  ready  to  go 
tx)  work  as  soon  as  it  was  light  enough  to  see.  I 
know  that  at  the  season  of  husking  corn,  October 
and  November,  they  were  usually  compelled  to 
work  late — till  12  or  1  o'clock  at  night.  I  know 
this  fact  because  they  accompanied  their  work 
with  a  loud  singing  of  their  own  sort.  I  usually 
retired  to  rest  between  11  and  12  o'clock,  and 
generally  heard  them  at  their  work  as  long  as  I 
was  awake.  The  slaves  lived  in  wretched  log 
cabins,  of  one  room  each,  without  floors  or  win- 
dows. I  believe  the  slaves  sometimes  suffer  for 
want  of  food.      One  evening,  as  I  was  sitting  in 


the  parlor  with  Mr.  W.  one  of  the  most  resolute 
of  the  slaves  came  to  the  door,  and  said,  "  Mas- 
ter, I  am  willing  to  work  for  you, -but  I  want 
something  to  eat."  The  only  reply  was,  "  Clear 
yourself."  I  learned  that  the  slaves  had  been 
without  food  all  day,  because  the  man  who  was 
sent  to  mill  could  not  obtain  his  grinding.  He 
went  again  the  next  day,  and  obtained  his  grist, 
and  the  slaves  had  no  food  till  he  returned.  He 
had  to  go  about  five  miles.* 

"  I  know  the  slaves  wore  sometimes  severely 
whipped.  I  saw  the  backs  of  several  wbich  had 
numerous  scars,  evidently  caused  by  long  and 
deep  lacerations  of  the  whip ;  and  I  have  good 
reason  to  believe  that  the  slaves  were  generally 
in  that  condition ;  for  I  never  saw  the  back  of 
one  e.Kposed  that  was  not  thus  marked, — and  from 
their  tattered  and  scanty  clothing  their  backs 
were  often  exposed." 

*To  this.  Rev.  Mr.  Scales  adds,  "In  familiar  language, 
and  in  more  detail,  as  I  have  learned  it  in  conversation  with 
Mr.  Chapin,  the  fact  is  as  follows : — 

"Mr.  W.  kept,  what  he  called  a  'boy,'  i.e.  a  man, to  go 
to  mill.  It  was  lii.s  custom  not  to  stive  his  slaves  anything  to 
eat  while  he  was  gone  to  mill — let  him  have  been  gone  long 
er  or  shorter — for  this  reason,  if  he  was  lazy,  and  delayed, 
the  slaves  would  become  hungry :  hence  indignant,  and 
abuse  him — this  was  his  punisliment.  On  that  occasion  he 
went  to  mill  in  the  morning.  The  slaves  came  up  at  noon, 
and  returned  to  work  without  food.  At  night,  after  having 
worked  hard  ail  day,  witliout  food,  went  to  bed  without 
supper.  About  10  o'clock  the  next  day.  they  came  up  in  a 
company,  to  their  master's  door,  (that  master  an  elder  in 
the  church),  and  deputed  one  more  resolute  than  the  rest  to 
address  him.  This  he  did  in  the  most  respectful  tones  and 
terms.  "  'We  are  willing  to  work  for  you,  master,  but  we 
can't  work  without  food ;  we  want  something  to  eat." 
"  Clear  yourself,"  was  the  answer.  Tlie  slaves  retired ; 
and  in  the  morning  were  driven  away  to  work  without  food. 
At  noon,  I  think,  or  somewhat  after,  they  were  fed." 


TESTIMONY  OF  MESSRS.  T.  D.  M.   AND  F.  C.  MACY. 


This  testimony  is  communicated  in  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Cyrus  Pierce,  a  respectable  and  well 
known  citizen  of  Nantucket,  Mass.  Of  the  wit- 
nesses, Messrs.  T.  D.  M.  and  F.  C.  Macy, 
Mr.  Pierce  says,  "  They  arc  both  inhabitants  of 
this  island,  and  have  resided  at  the  south ;  they 
•re   both  worthy  men,  for  whose  integrity  and 


intelligence  I  can  vouch  unqualifiedly  ;  the  for- 
mer has  furnished  me  with  the  following  state- 
ment. 

"  During  the  winter  of  1832 — 3,  I  resided  on 
the  island  of  St.  Simon,  Glynn  county,  Georgia. 
There  are  several  extensive  cotton  plantations  on 
the  island.     The  overseer  of  the  plantation  on 


106 


Personal  Narratives — T.  D.  M.  and  F.  C.  Macy. 


-hat  part  of  the  island  where  I  resided  was  a 
Georgian — a  man  of  stern  character,  and  at 
•imes  cruelly  abusive  to  h\s  s\a.\cs.  I  have  often 
been  witness  of  the  abuse  of  his  power.  In  South 
Carohna  and  Georgia,  on  tlic  low  lands,  the  cul. 
tivation  is  chiefly  of  rice.  The  land  where  it  is 
laised  is  often  inundated,  •  and  the  labor  of  pre- 
paring it,  and  raising  a  crop,  is  verj'  arduous. 
JMcn  and  women  are  in  the  held  from  earliest 
dawn  to  dark — often  xcithout  hats,  and  up  to 
tUfir  arm-pits  in  nmd  and  water.  At  St.  Si- 
mon's, cotton  was  the  staple  article.  Ocra,  the 
driver,  usually  waited  on  the'  overseer  to  receive 
orders  for  tlie  succeeding  day.  If  any  slave  was 
insolent,  or  negligent,  the  driver  was  authorized 
to  punish  him  with  the  whip,  with  as  many  blows 
a.s  the  magnitude  of  the  crime  justified.  He  was 
frcqucntl}'  cautioned,  upon  the  peril  of  his  skin,  to 
s:en  that  all  the  negroes  were  off  to  the  field  in 
the  morning.  '  Oera,'  said  the  overseer,  one 
evening,  to  the  driver,  'if  any  pretend  to  be 
.sick,  send  me  word — allow  no  lazy  wench  or  fel- 
low to  skulk  in  the  negro  house.'  Next  morning, 
a  few  minutes  after  the  departure  of  the  hands  to 
the  field,  Ocra  was  seen  hastening  to  the  house 
of  the  overseer.  He  was  soon  in  his  presence. 
'  Well,  Ocra,  what  now  ?'  Nothing,  sir,  only 
Rachel  says  she  sick — can't  go  to  de  field  to-day.' 
'  Ah,  sick,  is  she  ?  I'll  see  to  her  ;  you  may  be 
off.  She  shall  see  if  I  am  longer  to  be  fooled 
with  in  this  way.  Here,  Christmas,  mix  these 
salts — bring  them  to  me  at  the  negro  house.' 
And  seizing  his  whip,  he  made  ofi  to  the  negro 
settlement.  Having  a  strong  desiie  to  see  what 
would  be  the  result,  I  followed  him.  As  I  ap- 
proached the  negro  house,  I  heard  high  words. 
Rachel  was  stating  her  complaint — cliildren  were 
crying  from  fright — and  the  overseer  threatening. 
Rachel. — '  I  can't  work  to-day — I'm  sick.'  Over- 
seer.— '  But  you  shall  work,  if  you  die  for  it. 
Here,  take  these  salts.  Now  move  off — quick — 
let  me  see  your  face  again  before  night,  and,  by 
G — d,  you  shall  smart  for  it.  Be  off — no  beg- 
ging— not  a  word  ;' — and  he  dragged  her  from 
the  house,  and  followed  her  20  or  30  rods,  threat- 
ening. The  woman  did  not  reach  the  field. 
Overcome  by  the  exertion  of  walking,  and  by 
agitation,  she  sunk  down  exhausted  bj'  the  road 
side — was  taken  up,-  and  carried  back  to  the 
liouse,  where  an  abortion  occurred,  and  her  iife 
was  greatly  jeoparded. 

"  It  was  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  a  whole 
family,  father,  mother,  and  from  two  to  five 
children,  collected  together  aroimd  their  piggin 
of  hommony,  or  pail  of  potatoes,  watched  by  the 
overseer.  One  meal  was  always  eaten  in  the 
field.     No  time  M'as  allowed  for  relaxation. 

"  It  was  not  unusual  for  a  child  of  five  or  six 
years  to  perform  the  office  of  nurse — because  the 
mother  worked  in  a  remote  part  of  the  field,  and 
was  not  allowed  to  leave  her  employment  to  take 
care  of  her  infant.  AVant  of  proper  nutriment 
induces  sickness  of  the  worst  type. 

"No  matter  what  the  nature  of  the  service,  a 
peck  of  corn,  dealt  out  on  Sunday,  must  supply 
the  demands  of  nature  for  a  week. 

"The  Sabbath,  on  a  southern  plantation,  is  a 
mere  nominal  holida3^  The  slaves  are  liable  to 
be  called  upon  at  all  times,  by  those  who  have 
authority  over  them. 


"  When  it  rained,  the  slaves  were  allowed  !o 
collect  under  a  tree  until  the  shower  had  passed. 
Seldom,  on  a  week  day,  were  they  permitted  to 
go  to  their  huts  during  rain  ;  and  even  had  this 
privilege  been  granted,  many  of  those  miserable 
iiabitations  were  in  so  dilapidated  a  condition, 
that  they  would  afford  little  or  no  protection. 
Negro  huts  are  built  of  logs,  covered  with  boards 
or  thatch,  having  no  flooring,  and  but  one  apart- 
ment, serving  all  the  purposes  of  sleeping,  cook- 
ing, «Stc.  Some  are  furnished  with  a  temporary 
loft.  I  have  seen  a  whole  family  herded  together 
in  a  loft  ten  feet  by  twelve.  In  cold  weather,  they 
gather  around  the  fire,  spread  their  blankets  on  the 
ground,  and  keep  as  comfortable  as  they  can. 
Their  supply  of  clothing  is  scanty — each  slave 
being  allowed  a  Holland  coat  and  pantaloons,  of 
the  coarsest  manufacture,  and  one  pair  of  cow- 
hide shoes.  The  women,  enough  of  the  same 
kind  of  cloth  for  one  frock.  They  have  also  one 
pair  of  shoes.  Shoes  are  given  to  the  slaves  in 
the  winter  only.  In  summer,  their  clothing  is 
composed  of  osnaburgs.  Slaves  on  different  plan- 
tations are  not  allowed  without  a  written  per- 
mission, to  visit  their  fellow  bondsmen,  under 
penalty  of  severe  chastisement.  I  witnessed  the 
chastisement  of  a  j'oung  male  slave,  who  was 
found  lurking  about  the  plantation,  and  could 
give  no  other  account  of  himself,  than  that  he 
wanted  to  visit  some  of  his  acquaintance.  Fifty 
lashes  was  the  penalty  for  this  offence.  I  could 
not  endure  the  dreadful  shrieks  of  the  tortured 
slave,  and  rushed  away  from  the  scene." 

The  remainder  of  this  testimony  is  furnished 
by  Mr.  F.  C.  Macv. 

"  I  went  to  Savannah  in  1820.  Sailing  up  the 
river.  I  had  my  first  view  of  slavery.  A  large 
number  of  men  and  women,  with  a  piece  of 
board  on  their  heads,  carrying  mud,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  dyking,  near  the  river.  After  tarrying  a 
while  in  Savannah,  I  went  down  to  the  sea 
islands  of  De  Fuskce  and  Hilton  Head,  where  I 
spent  six  months.  Negro  houses  are  small,  built 
of  rough  materials,  and  nofoor.  Their  clothing, 
(one  suit,)  coarse  ;  which  thcv  received  on  Christ- 
mas day.  Their  food  was  three  pecks  of  pota- 
toes per  week,  in  the  potatoe  season,  and  one  peck 
of  corn  the  remainder  of  the  year.  The  slaves 
carried  with  them  into  the  field  their  meal,  and 
a  gourd  of  water.  They  cooked  their  hommony  in 
the  field,  and  ate  it  with  a  wooden  paddle 
Their  treatment  was  little  better  than  that  of 
brutes.       Whipping    was    nearly    an    every-day 

practice.     On   Mr.   M 's    plantation,   at    the 

island  De  Fuskee,  I  saw  an  old  man  whipped  ; 
he  was  about  60.  He  had  no  elotliing  on,  except 
a  shirt.  The  man  that  inflicted  the  blows  was 
Flim,  a  tall  and  stout  man.  The  whipping  was 
nery  severe.  I  inquired  into  the  cause.  Some 
vegetables  had  been  stolen  from  his  master's  gar- 
den, of  which  he  could  give  no  account.  I  saw 
several  women  whipped,  some  of  whom  were  in 
very  r/e/'>^//e  cirenmstanees.  The  ease  of  one  I  will 
relate.  She  had  been  purchased  in  Charleston,  and 
separated  from  her  liusband.  On  her  passage  to 
Savannah,  or  rafher  to  the  island,  she  was  dc 
livered  of  a  child  ;  and  in  about  three  weeks  alter 
this,  she  appeared  to  be  deranged.  She  wouhi 
leave  her  work,  go   into  the  woods,  and  smg 


Personal  Narratives — A  Clergyman. 


107 


Her  master  sent  for  her,  and  ordered  the  driver 
to  wliip  her.  I  was  near  enough  to  hear  the 
strokes. 

"  I  have  known  negro  boys,  partly  by  persua- 
sion, and  partly  by  force,  made  to  strip  off  their 
clothing  and  figlit  for  the  amusement  of  their 
masters.  They  would  fight  until  both  got  to 
crying. 

"  One  of  the  planters  told  me  that  his  boat  had 
been  used  without  permission.  A  number  of  his 
negroes  were  called  up,  and  put  in  a  building 
that  was  lalhcd  and  shingled,  "i'he  covering 
could  be  easily  removed  from  the  inside.  He 
called  one  out  for  examination.  While  examin- 
ing this  one,  he  discovered  another  negro,  com- 


ing out  of  the  roof  He  ordered  him  back  :  he 
obeyed.  In  a  few  moments  he  attempted  it 
again.  The  master  took  deliberate  aim  at  his 
head,  but  his  gun  missed  fire.  He  told  me  he 
should  probably  have  killed  him,  had  his  gun 
gone  off.  The  negro  jumped  and  run.  The 
master  took  aim  again ,  and  fired  ;  but  he  was  so 
far  distant,  that  he  received  only  a  few  shots  in 
the  calf  of  his  leg.  After  several  days  he  return- 
ed, and  received  a  severe  whipping. 

"  Mr.  B ,  planter   at   Hilton  Head,   freely 

confessed,  tliat  he  kept  one  of  his  slaves  as  a  mis- 
tress. She  slept  in  the  same  room  with  him. 
Tiiis,  I  think,  is  a  very  common  practice." 


TESTIMONY  OF  A  CLERGYMAN. 


The  following  letter  was  written  to  Mr.  Ar- 
THUR  Tappan,  of  New  York,  in  the  summer  of 
1833  As  the  name  of  the  writer  cannot  be  pub- 
lished with  safety  to  himself,  it  is  withheld. 

The  following  testimonials,  from  Mr.  Tappan, 
Professor  Wright,  and  Thomas  Ritter,  M.  D. 
of  New  York,  establish  the  trust-worthiness  and 
high  respectability  of  the  writer. 

"  I  received  the  following  letters  from  the  south 
during  the  year  1833.  They  were  written  by  a 
gentleman  who  had  then  resided  some  years  in 
the  slave  states.  Not  being  at  liberty  to  give  the 
writer's  name,  I  cheerfully  certify  that  he  is  a 
gentleman  of  established  character,  a  graduate  of 
Yale  College,  and  a  respected  minister  of  the 
gospel.  "  Arthur  Tappan." 

"  My  acquaintance  with  the  writer  of  the  fol- 
lowing  letter  commenced,  I  believe,  in  1823,  from 
which  time  we  were  fellow  students  in  Yale  Col- 
lege till  1826.  I  have  occasionally  seen  him  since. 
His  character,  so  far  as  it  has  come  within  my 
knowledge,  has  been  that  of  an  upright  and  re- 
markably candid  man.  I  place  great  confidence 
both  in  his  habits  of  careful  and  unprejudiced  ob- 
servation and  his  veracity. 

"  E.  Wright,  jun. 

"  New  York,  April  13,  1839." 

"  I  have  been  acquainted  with  the  writer  of 
the  following  letter  about  twelve  years,  and  know 
him  to  be  a  gentleman  of  high  respectability,  in- 
tegrity, and  piety.  We  were  fellow  students  in 
Yale  College,  and  my  opportunities  for  judging 
of  his  character,  both  at  that  time  and  since  our 
oraduation,  have  been  such,  that  I  feel  myself 
fullv  warranted  in  making  the  above  unequivocal 
declaration.  "  Thomas  Ritter. 

"  104,  Cherry-street,  New  York." 

"Natchez,  1833. 
"  It  has  been  almost  four  years  since  I  came  to 
the  south-west ;  and  although  I  have  been  told, 
from  month  to  month,  that  I  should  soon  wear  off 
my  northern  prejudices,  and  probably  have  slaves 
of  my  own,  yet  my  judgment  in  regard  to  oppres- 
sion, or  my  prejudices,  if  they  arc  pleased  so  to 
call  them  remain  with  me  still.  I  judge  still  from 
those  principles  whicli  were  fixed  in  my  mind  at 
the  north ;  and  a  residence  at  the  south  has  not 


enabled  me  so  to  pervert  truth,  as  to  make  m(us. 
tice  appear  justice. 

"  I  have  studied  the  state  of  things  here,  now  for 
years,  coolly  and  deliberately,  with  the  eye  of  an 
uninterested  looker  on  ;  and  hence  I  may  not  be 
altogether  unprepared  to  state  to  }'ou  some  facts, 
and  to  draw  conclusions  from  them. 

"  Permit  me  then  to  relate  what  I  have  seen  ; 
and  do  not  imagine  that  tliese  are  all  exceptions 
to  the  general  treatment,  but  rather  believe  that 
thousands  of  cruelties  are  practised  in  this  Chris- 
tian land,  every  year,  which  no  eye  that  ever  shed 
a  tear  of  pity  could  look  upon. 

"  Soon  after  my  arrival  I  rgade  an  excursion  into 
the  country,  to  the  distance  of  some  twenty  miles. 
And  as    I  was   passing  by  i  cotton  field,  where 
about  fifty  negroes  were  at  work,  I  was  inclined 
to  stop  by  the  road  side  to  view  a  scene  which 
was  then  new  to  me.     While  I  was,  in  my  mind, 
comparing  this  mode  of  labor  with  that  of  my 
own  native  place,  I  heard  the  driver,  with  a  rough 
oath,  order  one  that  was  near  him,  who  seemed 
to  be  laboring  to  the  extent  of  his  power,  to  "lie 
down."     In  a  moment  he  Avas  obeyed ;  and  he 
commenced  whipping  the  offender  upon  his  na- 
ked back,  and  continued,  to  the  amount  of  about 
twenty  lashes,  with  a  heavy  raw-hide  whip,  tlie 
crack  of  which  might  have  been  heard  more  than 
half  a  mile.     Nor  did  the  females  escape  ;  for  al- 
though I  stopped  scarcely  fifteen  minutes,  no  less 
than  three  were  whipped  in  the  same  manner,  and 
that  so  severely,  I  was  strongly  inclined  to  interfere. 
"  You  may  be  assured,  sir,  that  I  remained  not 
unmoved  :  I  could  no  longer  look  on  sni^h  cruel- 
ty, but  turned  away  and  rode  on,  while  the  echoes 
of  the  lash  were  reverberating  in  the  woods  around 
me.     Such  scenes  have  long  since  become  fami- 
liar to  me.     But  then  the  full  effect  was  not  lost : 
and   I   shall   never   forget,   to  my  latest  day,  the 
mingled  feelings  of  pity,  horror,  and  indignation 
that  took  possession  of  my  mind.    I  involuntarily 
exclaimed,  O  God  of  my  fathers,  how  dost  thou 
permit  such  things  to  defile  our  land  I     Be  mer- 
ciful to  us  1  and  visit  us  not  in  justice,  for  all  our 
iniquities  and  the  iniquities  of  our  fathers! 

"  As  I  passed  on  I  soon  found  that  I  had  escaped 
from  one  horrible  scene  only  to  witness  another. 
A  planter  with  whom  I  was  well  acquantcd,  had 
caught  a  negro  without  a  pass.  And  at  the  mo- 
ment I  was  passing  by,  he  was  in  the  act  of  fas- 


108 


Personal  Narratives — A  Clergyman. 


tening  his  feet  and  hands  to  the  trees,  having 
previously  made  him  take  oft'  all  his  clothing  ex- 
cept his  tro-.vsers.  When  he  had  sufiiciently  se- 
cured this  poor  creature,  he  beat  him  for  several 
minutes  with  a  green  switch  more  than  six  feet 
long  ;  while  he  was  writiiing  with  anguish,  en- 
deavoring in  vain  to  break  the  cords  with  which 
he  was  bound,  and  incessantly  crying  out,  "Lord, 
master  !  do  pardon  me  this  time !  do,  master, 
have  mercy  I"  These  expressions  have  recurred 
to  me  a  thousand  times  since  ;  and  although  they 
came  from  one  that  is  not  considered  among  the 
sons  of  men,  yet  I  think  they  are  well  worthy  of 
remembrance,  as  they  might  lead  a  wise  man  to 
consider  whether  such  shall  receive  mercy  from 
the  righteous  Judge,  as  never  showed  mercy  to 
their  fellow  men. 
*  "  At  length  I  arrived  at  the  dwelling  of  a  planter 
of  my  acquaintance,  with  whom  I  passed  the 
night.  At  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  I 
heard  the  barking  of  several  dogs,  mingled  with 
the  most  agonizing  cries  that  I  ever  heard  from 
any  human  being.  Soon  after  the  gentleman 
came  in,  and  began  to  apologize,  by  saying  that 
two  of  his  runavv'ay  slaves  had  just  been  brought 
homo  ;  and  as  he  had  previously  tried  every  spe- 
cies of  punishment  upon  them  without  effect,  he 
knew  not  what  else  to  add,  except  to  set  his  blood 
hounds  upon  them.  '  And,'  continued  he,  '  one 
of  them  has  been  so  badly  bitten  that  he  has  been 
trying  to  die.  I  am  only  sorry  that  he  did  not ; 
for  then  I  should  not  have  been  further  troubled 
with  him.  If  he  lives  I  intend  to  send  him  to 
Natchez  or  to  New  Orleans,  to  work  with  the  ball 
and  chain.' 

"  From  this  last  remark  I  understood  that  private 
individuals  have  the  right  of  thus  subjecting  their 
unmanageable  slaves.  I  have  since  seen  num- 
bers of  these  '  ball  and  chain'  men,  both  in  Nat- 
chez and  New  Orleans,  but  I  do  not  know  whe- 
tlier  there  were  any  among  them  except  the  state 
convicts. 

"  As  the  summer  was  drawing  towards  a  close, 
and  the  yellow  fever  beginning  to  prevail  in  town, 
I  went  to  reside  some  months  in  the  country. 
This  was  the  colton  picking  season,  during  which, 
the  planters  say,  there  is  a  greater  necessity  for 
logging  than  at  any  other  time.  And  I  can  as- 
sure you,  that  as  I  have  sat  in  my  window  night 
after  night,  while  the  cotton  was  being  weighed, 
I  have  heard  the  crack  of  the  whip,  without  much 
mtermission,  for  a  whole  hour,  from  no  less  than 
three  plantations,  some  of  which  were  a  full  mile 
distant. 

"  I  found  that  the  slaves  were  kept  in  the  field 
from  daylight  until  dark  ;  and  then,  if  they  had 
not  gathered  what  the  master  or  overseer  thought 
sufficient,  they  were  subjected  to  the  lash. 

"  Many  by  such  treatment  are  induced  to  run 
away  and  take  up  their  lodging  in  the  woods.  I 
do  not  say  that  all  who  run  away  are  thus  closely 
pressed,  but  I  do  know  that  many  are ;  and  I  have 
known  no  less  than  a  dozen  desert  at  a  time  from 
the  same  plantation,  in  consequence  of  the  over- 
.seer's  forcing  them  to  work  to  the  extent  of  their 
power,  and  then  whipping  them  for  not  having 
done  more. 

"  But  suppose  that  they  run  away — what  is  to 
become  of  them  in  the  forest  ?  If  they  cannot 
eteal  they  must  perish  of  hunger — if  the  nights 


are  cold,  their  feet  will  be  frozen  ;  for  if  they  make 
a  fire  they  may  be  discovered,  and  be  shot  at. 
If  they  attempt  to  leave  the  country,  their  chance 
of  success  is  about  nothing.  They  must  return, 
be  whipped — if  old  offenders,  wear  the  collar,  per- 
haps be    branded, and  fare  worse  than  before. 

"  Do  you  believe  it,  sir,  not  six  months  since,  I 
saw  a  number  of  my  Christian  neighbors  packing 
up  provisions,  as  I  supposed  for  a  deer  hunt ;  but 
as  I  was  about  offering  myself  to  the  party,  I 
learned  that  their  powder  and  balls  were  destined 
to  a  very  different  purpose  :  it  was,  in  short,  the 
design  of  the  party  to  bring  home  a  number  of 
runaway  slaves,  or  to  shoot  them  if  they  should 
not  be  able  to  get  possession  of  them  in  any  other 
way. 

"  You  will  ask,  Is  not  this  murder  ?  Call  it,  sir, 
by  what  name  you  please,  such  aie  the  facts: — 
many  are  shot  every  year,  and  that  too  while  the 
masters  say  they  treat  their  slaves  well. 

"But  let  me  turn  your  attention  to  another  spe- 
cies of  cruelty.  About  a  year  since  I  knew  a  cer- 
■;un  slave  who  had  deserted  his  master,  to  be 
caught,  and  for  the  first  time  fastened  to  the 
stocks.  In  those  same  stocks,  from  which  at  mid- 
night I  have  heard  cries  of  distress,  while  the 
master  slept,  and  was  dreaming,  perhaps,  of  drink- 
ing wine  and  of  discussing  the  price  of  cotton. 
On  the  next  morjiing  he  was  chained  in  an  im- 
movable posture,  and  branded  in  both  cheeks  with 
red  hot  stamps  of  iron.  Such  are  the  tender  mer- 
cies of  men  who  love  wealth,  and  are  determined 
to  obtain  it  at  any  price. 

"  Suffer  me  to  add  another  to  the  list  of  enormi- 
ties, and  I  will  not  offend  you  with  more. 

"  There  was,  some  time  since,  brought  to  trial  in 
this  town  a  planter  residing  about  fifteen  miles 
distant,  for  whipping  his  slave  to  death.  You 
will  suppose,  of  course,  that  be  was  punished. 
No,  sir,  he  was  acquitted,  although  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  the  fact.  I  heard  the  tale  of  mur- 
der from  a  man  who  was  acquainted  with  all  the 
circumstances.  '  I  was,'  said  he  ,  '  passing  along 
the  road  near  the  burying-ground  of  the  planta- 
tion, about  nine  o'clock  at  night,  when  I  saw  se- 
veral lights  gleaming  through  the  woods  ;  and  as 
I  approached,  in  order  to  see  what  was  doing,  I 
beheld  the  coroner  of  Natchez,  with  a  number  of 
men,  standing  around  the  body  of  a  young  female, 
which  by  the  torches  seemed  almost  perfectly 
white.  On  inquiry  I  learned  that  the  master  had 
so  unmercifully  beaten  this  girl  that  she  died  un- 
der the  operation  :  and  that  also  he  had  so  severe- 
ly punished  another  of  his  slaves  that  he  was  but 
just  ahve.' " 

We  here  rest  the  case  for  the  present,  so  far  as 
respects  the  presentation  of  facts  showing  the  con- 
dition of  the  slaves,  and  proceed  to  consider  the 
main  objections  which  are  usually  employed  to 
weaken  such  testimony,  or  wholly  to  set  it  aside. 
But  before  we  enter  upon  the  examination  of  spa. 
cific  objections,  and  introductory  to  them,  we  re- 
mark, — 

1.  That  the  system  of  slavery  must  be  a  sys- 

tern  of  horrible  cruelty,  follows  of  necessity,  from 

the  fact  that  two  millions  seven  hundred  thousand 

j  human  beings  are  held  by  force,  and  used  as  arti- 


Personal  Narratives — Remarks 


109 


cles  of  property.  Nothing  but  a  heavy  yoke,  and 
an  iron  one,  could  possibly  keep  so  many  necks  in 
the  dust.  That  must  be  a  constant  and  mighty 
pressure  which  holds  so  still  such  a  vast  army ; 
nothing  could  do  it  but  the  daily  experience  of  se- 
verities, and  the  ceaseless  dread  and  certainty  of 
the  most  terrible  inflictions  if  they  should  dare  to 
toss  in  their  chains. 

2.  Were  there  nothing  else  to  prove  it  a  system 
of  monstrous  cruelty,  the  fact  that  fear  is  the 
only  motive  with  which  the  slave  is  plied  during 
his  whole  existence,  would  be  sufficient  to  brand 
it  with  execration  as  the  grand  tormentor  of  man. 
The  slave's  susceptibility  of  pain  is  the  sole  ful. 
crum  on  which  slavery  works  the  lever  that  moves 
him.  In  this  it  plants  all  its  stings  ;  here  it  sinks 
its  hot  irons;  cuts  its  deep  gashes;  flings  its  burn- 
ing embers,  and  dashes  its  boiling  brine  and  liquid 
fire  ;  into  this  it  strikes  its  cold  flesh  hooks,  grap- 
gling  irons,  and  instruments  of  nameless  torture  ; 
and  by  it  drags  him  shrieking  to  the  end  of  his 
pilgrimage.  The  fact  that  the  master  inflicts 
pain  upon  the  slave  not  merely  as  an  end  to  grati- 
fy passion,  but  constantly  as  a  means  of  extorting 
labor,  is  enough  of  itself  to  show  that  the  system 
of  slavery  is  unmixed  cruelty. 

3.  That  the  slaves  must  suffer  frequent  and 
terrible  inflictions,  follows  inevitably  from  the 
character  of  those  who  direct  their  labor.  What- 
ever may  be  the  character  of  the  slaveholders  them- 
eelvcs,  all  agree  that  the  overseers  are,  as  a  class, 
most  abandoned,  brutal,  and  desperate  men.  This 
is  so  well  known  and  believed  that  any  testimony 
to  prove  it  seems  needless.  The  testimony  of 
JMr.  Wirt,  late  Attorney  General  of  the  United 
States,  a  Virginian  and  a  slaveholder,  is  as  fol- 
lows. In  his  life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  36,  speak- 
ing of  the  different  classes  of  society  in  Virginia, 
he  says, — "  Last  and  lowest  a  feculum,  of  beings 
called  '  overseers' — the  most  abject,  degraded,  un. 
principled  race,  always  cap  in  hand  to  the  dons 
who  emploj'  them,  and  furnishing  materials  for 
tlie  exercise  of  their  pride,  insolence,  and  spirit  of 
domination." 

Rev.  Phineas  Smith,  of  Centreville,  New-York, 
who  has  resided  some  years  at  the  south,  says  of 
overseers — 

"  It  need  hardly  be  added  that  overseers  are  in 
general  ignorant,  unprincipled  and  cruel,  and  in 
6uch  low  repute  that  they  are  not  permitted  to 


come  to  the  tables  of  their  employers;  yet  they 
have  the  constant  control  of  all  the  human  cattle 
that  belong  to  the  master. 

"  These  men  arc  continually  advancing  from 
their  low  station  to  the  higher  one  of  masters. 
These  changes  bring  into  the  possession  of  power 
a  class  of  men  of  whose  mental  and  moral  quali 
ties  I  have  already  spoken." 

Rev.  Horace  Moulto.x,  of  Marlboro',  Massa- 
chusetts, who  lived  in  Georgia  several  years,  says 
of  them, — 

"  The  overseers  are  generally  loose  in  their  mo- 
rals; it  is  the  object  of  masters  to  employ  those 
whom  they  think  will  get  the  most  work  out  of 
their  hands, —  hence  those  who  whip  and  tor- 
ment the  slaves  the  most  are  in  many  instances 
called  the  best  overseers.  The  masters  think 
those  whom  the  slaves  fear  the  most  are  the  best. 
Quite  a  portion  of  the  masters  employ  their  own 
slaves  as  overseers,  or  rather  they  are  called 
drivers ;  these  are  more  subject  to  the  will  of 
the  masters  than  the  white  overseers  are  ;  some 
of  them  are  as  lordly  as  an  Austrian  prince,  and 
sometimes  more  cruel  even  than  the  white?." 

That  the  overseers  are,  as  a  body,  sensual,  bru. 
tal,  and  violent  men  is  proverbial.  The  tender 
mercies  of  such  men  7nust  be  cruel. 

4.  The  oxanership  of  human  beings  necessarily 
presupposes  an  utter  disregard  of  their  happiness. 
He  who  assumes  it  monopolizes  their  whole  capi- 
tal, leaves  them  no  stock  on  which  to  trade,  and 
out  of  which  to  make  happiness.  Wliatever  is  the 
master's  gain  is  the  slave's  loss,  a  loss  wrested 
from  him  by  the  master,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  making  it  his  own  gain  ;  this  is  the  master's 
constant  employment — forcing  the  slave  to  toil — 
violently  wringing  from  him  all  he  has  and  all  he 
gets,  and  using  it  as  his  own ; — like  the  vile  bird 
that  never  builds  its  nest  from  materials  of  its  own 
gathering,  but  either  drives  other  birds  from  theirs 
and  takes  possession  of  them,  or  tears  them  in 
pieces  to  get  the  means  of  constructing  their  own. 
This  daily  practice  of  forcibly  robbing  others,  and 
habitually  living  on  the  plunder,  cannot  but  be- 
get in  the  mind  the  habit  of  regarding  the  interests 
and  happiness  of  those  whom  it  robs,  as  of  no  sort 
of  consequence  in  comparison  with  its  own  ;  con- 
sequently whenever  those  interests  and  this  hap. 
piness  are  in  the  way  of  its  own  gratification,  they 
will  be  sacrificed  without  scruple.  He  who  can- 
not see  this  would  be  unable  to  feel  it,  if  it  wera 
seen. 


OBJECTIONS    CONSIDERED. 


Objection    I.— SUCH    CRUELTIES    ARE    INCREDIBLE. 


The  enormities  inflicted  by  slaveholders  upon 
their  slaves  will  never  be  discredited  except  by 
Uiosc  who  overlook  the  simple  fact,  that  he  who 
holds  human  beings  as  his  bona  fide  property,  re- 
gards ihem  as  property,  and  not  as  persons ;  this 
is  his  permanent  slate  of  mind  toward  them.  He 
does  not  contemplate  slaves  as  human  beings,  con- 
Kcquently  docs  not  treat  them  as  such ;  and  with 
entire  indifference  sees  them  suffer  privations  and 
writhe  under  blows,  wliich,  if  inflicted  upon 
whites,  would  fill  him  with  horror  and  indigna- 
tion. He  regards  that  as  good  treatment  of 
slaves,  which  would  seem  to  him  insufferable 
abuse  if  practiced  upon  others;  and  would  de. 
nounce  that  as  a  monstrous  outrage  and  horrible 
cruelty,  if  perpretated  upon  white  men  and  wo-- 
men,  which  he  sees  every  day  meted  out  to  black 
slaves,  without  perhaps  ever  thinking  it  cruel. 
Accustomed  all  his  life  to  regard  them  rather  as 
domestic  animals,  to  hear  them  stormed  at,  and  to 
see  them  cuffed  and  caned;  and  being  himself  in 
the  constant  habit  of  treating  them  thus,  such 
practices  have  become  to  him  a  mere  matter  of 
course,  and  make  no  impression  on  his  mind. 
True,  it  is  incredible  that  men  should  treat  as 
chattels  those  whom  they  truly  regard  as  human 
heings ;  but  that  they  should  treat  as  chattels  and 
working  animals  those  whom  they  regard  a.s  such 
is  no  marvel.  The  common  treatment  of  dogs, 
when  they  are  in  the  way,  is  to  kick  them  out  of 
it ;  we  see  them  every  day  kicked  off  the  side- 
walks, and  out  of  shops,  and  on  Sabbaths  out  of 
churches, — yet,  as  they  are  but  dogs,  these  do  not 
strike  us  as  outrages  ;  yet,  if  we  were  to  see  men, 
women,  and  children — our  neighbors  and  friends, 
kicked  out  of  stores  by  merchants,  or  out  of 
churches  by  the  deacons  and  sexton,  we  should 
call  the  perpetrators  inhuman  wretches. 

We  have  said  that  slaveholders  regard  their 
slaves  not  as  human  beings,  but  as  mere  working 
animals,  or  merchandise.  The  whole  vocabulary 
of  slaveholders,  their  laws,  their  usages,  and  their 
entire  treatment  of  their  slaves  fully  establish  this. 
The  same  terms  are  applied  to  slaves  that  are 
given  to  cattle.  They  are  called  ''  stock."  So 
when  the  children  of  slaves  are  spoken  of  pro- 
spectively, they  are  called  their  "  increase  ;"  the 
same  term  that  is  applied  to  flocks  and  herds.  So 
the  female  slaves  that  are  mothers,  are  called 
"  breeders"  till  past  child  bearing  ;  and  often  the 
same  terms  are  applied  to  the  different  sexes  that 
are  applied  to  the  males  and  females  among  cat- 
tle. Those  who  compel  the  labor  of  slaves  and 
cattle  have  the  same  appellation,  "drivers:"  the 


names  which  they  call  them  are  the  same  and  simi- 
ilar  to  those  given  to  their  horses  and  oxen.  The 
laws  of  slave  states  make  them  property,  equally 
with  goats  and  swine  ;  they  are  levied  upon  for  debt 
in  the  same  way  ;  they  are  included  in  the  same 
advertisements  of  public  sales  with  cattle,  swine, 
and  asses;  when  moved  from  one  part  of  the 
country  to  another,  they  are  Iierded  in  droves  hke 
cattle,  and  like  them  urged  on  by  drivers ;  their 
labor  is  compelled  in  the  same  way.  They  are 
bought  and  sold,  and  separated  like  cattle  :  when 
exposed  for  sale,  their  good  qualities  are  described 
as  jockies  show  off  the  good  pointsof  their  horses; 
their  strength,  activity,  skill,  power  of  endurance, 
&c.  are  lauded, — and  those  who  bid  upon  them 
examine  their  persons,  just  as  purchasers  inspect 
horses  and  oxen ;  they  open  their  mouths  to  see 
if  their  teeth  are  sound  ;  strip  their  backs  to  see  if 
they  are  badly  scarred,  and  handle  their  limbs 
and  muscles  to  see  if  they  are  firmly  knit.  Like 
horses,  they  are  warranted  to  be  "  sound,"  or  to  be 
returned  to  the  owner  if  "  unsound."  A  father 
gives  his  son  a  horse  and  a  slave  ;  by  his  will  he 
distributes  among  them  his  race-horses,  hounds, 
game-cocks,  and  slaves.  We  leave  the  reader  to 
carry  out  the  parallel  wliich  we  have  only  begun. 
Its  details  would  cover  many  pages. 

That  slaveholders  do  not  practically  regard 
slaves  as  human  beings  is  abundantly  shown  by 
their  own  voluntary  testimony.  In  a  recent  work 
entitled,  "  The  South  vindicated  from  the  Treason 
and  Fanaticism  of  Northern  Abolitionists,"  wliich 
was  written,  we  are  informed,  by  Colonel  Dayton, 
late  member  of  Congress  from  South  Carolina  ; 
the  writer,  speaking  of  tlie  awe  with  which  the 
slaves  regard  the  whites,  says. — 

''  The  northerner  looks  upon  a  band  of  negroes 
as  upon  so  many  men,  but  the  planter  or  southern- 
er views  themin  a  very  different  light.'' 

Extract  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Summers,  of 
Virginia,  in  the  legislature  of  that  state,  Jan.  26, 
1832.     See  the  Richmond  Whig. 

"  When,  in  the  sublime  lessons  of  Christianity, 
he  (the  slaveholder)  is  taught  to  '  do  unto  others 
as  he  would  have  others  do  unto  him,'  iiK    never 

DREAMS  THAT  THE  DEGRADED  NEGRO  IS  WITIIKN  THE 
PALE  OF  THAT  HOLY  CANON." 

President  Jefferson,  in  his  letter  to  Governor 
Coles,  of  lUinois,  dated  Aug.  25,  1814,  asserts, 
that  slaveholders  regard  their  slaves  as  brutes,  in 
the  following  remarkable  language. 

"  Nursed  and  educated  in  the  daily  liabit  of  see- 
ing the  degraded  condition,  both  bodily  and  men- 
tal, of  these  unfortunate  beings  [the  slaves],  few 

minds  have  YET  DOUBTED  BUT  THAT  THEY  WERE  AS 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


Ill 


LKGITIMATE  SUBJECTS  OF  PROPERTY  AS  THEIR  HORSES 
OR  CATTLE." 

Having  rIiowh  that  slaveholders  regard  their 
slaves  n..s  mere  working  animals  and  cattle,  we 
now  proceed  to  show  that  their  actual  treatment 
of  them,  is  worse  than  it  would  be  if  they  were 
brutes.    We  repeat  it,  Slaveholders  treat  their 

SLAVES  worse  than  THEY  DO  THEIR  BRUTES.    Who- 

cvcr  heard  of  cows  or  sheep  being  deliberately 
tied  up  and  beaten  and  lacerated  till  they  died  ? 
or  horses  coolly  tortured  by  tho  hour,  till  covered 
with  mangled  flesh,  or  of  swine  having  their  legs 
tied  and  being  suspended  from  a  tree  and  lacerat. 
ed  with  thongs  for  hours,  or  of  hounds  stretched 
and  made  fast  at  full  length,  flayed  with  whips, 
red  pepper  rubbed  into  their  bleeding  gashes,  and 
hot  brine  dashed  on  to  aggravate  the  torture  ? 
Yet  just  such  forms  and  degrees  of  torture  are 
daily  perpetrated  upon  the  slaves.  Now  no  man 
that  knows  human  nature  will  marvel  at  this. 
Though  great  cruelties  have  always  been  inflicted 
by  men  upon  brutes,  yet  incomparably  the  most 
horrid  ever  perpetrated,  have  been  those  of  men 
upon  their  own  species.  Any  leaf  of  history  turn- 
ed over  at  random  has  proof  enough  of  this. 
Every  reflecting  mind  perceives  that  when  men 
hold  human  beings  as  property,  they  must,  from 
the  nature  of  the  case,  treat  them  worse  than 
they  treat  their  horses  and  oxen.  It  is  impossible 
for  cattle  to  excite  in  men  such  tempests  of  fury 
as  men  excite  in  each  other.  Men  are  often  pro- 
voked if  their  horses  or  hounds  refuse  to  do,  or 
their  pigs  refuse  to  go  where  they  wish  to  drive 
them,  but  the  feeling  is  rarely  intense  and  never 
permanent.  It  is  vexation  and  impatience,  rather 
than  settled  rage,  malignity,  or  revenge.  If  horses 
and  dogs  were  intelligent  beings,  and  still  held  as 
property,  their  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  their 
ov/ners,  would  exasperate  them  immeasurably 
more  than  it  would  be  possible  for  them  to  do, 
with  the  minds  of  brutes.  None  but  little  chil- 
dren and  idiots  get  angry  at  sticks  and  stones  that 
lie  in  their  way  or  hurt  them  ;  but  put  into  sticks 
and  stones  intelligence,  and  will,  and  power  of 
feeling  and  motion,  while  they  remain  as  now,  ar- 
tides  of  property,  and  what  a  towering  rage  would 
men  be  in,  if  bushes  whipped  them  in  the  face  when 
they  walked  among  them,  or  stones  rolled  over 
tlieir  toes  when  they  climbed  hills  !  and  what 
exemplary  vengeance  would  be  inflicted  upon 
door-steps  and  hearth-stones,  if  they  were  to 
move  out  of  their  places,  instead  of  lying  still 
where  they  were  put  for  their  owners  to  tread 
upon.  The  greatest  provocation  to  human  nature 
is  opposition  to  its  will.  If  a  man's  will  be  re- 
sisted by  one  far  below  him,  the  provocation  is 
vastly  greater,  than  when  it  is  resisted  by  an 
acknowledged  superior.  In  the  former  case,  it  in. 
flames  strong  passions,  which  in  the  latter  lie 


dormant.  The  rage  of  proud  Haman  knew  no 
bounds  against  the  poor  Jew  who  would  not  do 
as  he  wished,  and  so  he  built  a  gallows  for  him. 
If  the  person  opposing  the  will  of  another,  be  so 
far  below  him  as  to  be  on  a  level  with  chattels, 
and  be  actually  held  and  used  as  an  article  of 
property ;  pride,  scorn,  lust  of  power,  rage  and 
revenge  explode  together  upon  the  hapless  vie 
tim.  The  idea  of  property  having  a  will,  and 
that  too  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  its  owner, 
and  counteracting  it,  is  a  stimulant  of  terrible 
power  to  the  most  relentless  human  passions  ; 
and  from  the  nature  of  slavery,  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  human  mind,  this  fierce  stimulant 
must,  with  various  degrees  of  strength,  act  upon 
slaveholders  almost  without  ceasing.  The  slave, 
however  abject  and  crushed,  is  an  intelligent  be- 
ing  :  he  has  a  icill,  and  that  will  cannot  be  anni- 
hilated, it  will  show  itself;  if  for  a  moment  it  is 
smothered,  like  pent  up  fires  when  vent  is  found, 
it  flames  the  fiercer.  Malie  intelligence  property, 
and  its  manager  will  have  his  match;  he  is  met 
at  every  turn  by  an  opposing  will,  net  in  the  form 
of  down-right  rebellion  and  defiance,  but  yet,  visi- 
bly, an  ever-opposing  will.  He  sees  it  in  the  dissat- 
isfied look,  and  reluctant  air  and  unwilling  move- 
ment ;  the  constrained  strokes  of  labor,  the 
drawling  tones,  the  slow  hearing,  the  feigned 
stupidity,  the  sham  pains  and  sickness,  the  short 
memory  ;  and  he  feels  it  every  hour,  in  innumer. 
able  forms,  frustrating  his  designs  by  a  ceaseless 
though  perhaps  invisible  countermining.  This 
unceasing  opposition  to  the  will  of  its  '  owner,' 
on  the  part  of  his  rational  '  property,'  is  to  the 
slaveholder  as  the  hot  iron  to  the  nerve.  He 
raves  under  it,  and  storms,  and  gnashes,  and 
smites ;  but  the  more  he  smites,  the  hotter  it 
gets,  and  the  more  it  burns  him.  Further,  this 
opposition  of  the  slave's  will  to  his  owner's,  not 
only  excites  him  to  severity,  that  he  may  gratify 
his  rage,  but  makes  it  necessary  for  him  to  use 
violence  in  breaking  down  this  resistance — thus 
subjecting  the  slave  to  additional  tortures.  Tlierc 
is  another  inducement  to  cruel  inflictions  upon 
the  slave,  and  a  necessity  for  it,  which  docs  not 
exist  in  the  case  of  brutes.  Offenders  must  be 
made  an  example  to  others,  to  strike  them  with 
terror.  If  a  slave  runs  away  and  is  caught,  his 
master  flogs  him  with  terrible  severity,  not  mere- 
ly to  gratify  his  resentment,  and  to  keep  him  from 
running  away  again,  but  as  a  warning  to  others. 
So  in  every  case  of  disobedience,  neglect,  stub- 
bornness, unfaithfulness,  indolence,  insolence, 
theft,  feigned  sickness,  when  his  directions  are 
forgotten,  or  slighted,  or  supposed  to  be,  or  his 
wishes  crossed,  or  his  property  injured,  or  left  ex. 
posed,  or  his  work  ill-executed,  the  master  is 
tempted  to  inflict  cruelties,  not  merely  to  wreak 
his  own  vengeance  upon  him,  and  to  make  the 


112 


Olijcctions  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


slave  more  circumspect  in  future,  but  to  sustain 
his  autliority  over  the  other  slaves,  to  restrain 
them  from  like  practices,  and  to  preserve  his 
own  property. 

A  multitude  of  facts,  illustrating  the  position 
that  slaveholders  treat  their  slaves  worse  than 
they  do  their  cattle,  will  occur  to  all  who  are 
familiar  with  slavery.  When  cattle  break  through 
tlieir  owners'  inelosures  and  escape,  if  found,  they 
are  driven  back  and  fastened  in  again  ;  and  even 
slaveholders  would  execrate  as  a  wretch,  the 
man  who  should  tie  them  up,  and  bruise  and  la- 
cerate them  for  straying  away  ;  but  when  slaves 
that  have  escaped  are  caught,  they  are  flogged 
with  the  most  terrible  severitj'.  When  herds  of 
cattle  are  driven  to  market,  they  are  suffered  to 
go  in  the  easiest  way,  each  by  himself;  but  when 
slaves  are  driven  to  market,  they  are  fastened 
together  with  liandcuffs,  galled  bj'  iron  collars 
and  chains,  and  thus  forced  to  travel  on  foot 
hundreds  of  miles,  sleeping  at  night  in  their 
chains.  Sheep,  and  sometimes  horned  cattle  are 
marked  with  their  owners'  initials — but  this  is 
generally  done  with  paint,  and  of  course  pro- 
duces no  pain.  Slaves,  too,  are  often  marked 
with  their  owners'  initials,  but  the  letters  are 
stamped  into  their  flesh  with  a  hot  iron.  Cattle 
are  suffered  to  graze  their  pastures  without  stint; 
but  the  slaves  are  restrained  in  their  foed  to  a 
fixed  allowance.  The  slaveholders'  horses  are 
notoriously  far  better  fed,  more  moderately  work- 
ed, have  fewer  hours  of  labor,  and  longer  inter- 
vals of  rest  than  their  slaves  ;  and  their  valuable 
horses  are  far  more  comfortably  housed  and 
lodged,  and  their  stables  more  effectually  defend- 
ed from  the  weather,  than  the  slaves'  huts.  We 
have  here  merely  ieg"?in  a  comparison,  which  the 
reader  can  easily  carry  out  at  length,  from,  the 
materials  furnished  in  this  work. 

We  will,  however,  subjoin  a  few  testimonies  of 
slaveholders,  and  others  who  have  resided  in 
slave  slates,  expressly  asserting  that  slaves  are 
treated  worse  than  brutes. 

The  late  Dr.  George  Buchanan,  of  Baltimore, 
Maryland,  a  member  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society,  in  an  oration  delivered  in  Baltimore, 
July  4,  1791,  page  10,  says  : 

"  The  Africans  wliom  you  despise,  whom  you 
more  inhumanly  treat  than  hruies,  are  equally 
capable  of  improvement  with  yourselves." 

The  Rev.  George  Wiiitefiei.d,  in  his  cele- 
brated letter  to  the  slaveholders  of  Maryland, 
Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia, 
written  one  hundred  years  ago,  (See  Benczet's 
Caution  to  Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies,  page 
13),  says: 

"  Sure  I  am,  it  is  sinful  to  use  them  as  bad, 
nay  worse  than  if  they  were  brutes ;  and  what- 
ever particular  exceptions  there  may  be,  (9s  I 


would  chariablty  hope  there  are  so7ne)  I  fear  the 
generality  of  you  tiiat  own  negroes,  are  liable  to 
such  a  charge." 

Mr.  Rice,  of  Kentucky  in  his  speech  in  the 
Convention  that  formed  the  Constitution  of  that 
state,  m  1790,  says  : 

"  He  [the  slave]  is  a  rational  creature,  reduced 
by  the  power  of  legislation  to  the  state  of  a  brute, 
and  thereby  deprived  of  every  privilege  of  hu- 
manity. .  .  .  The  brute  may  steal  or  rob,  to 
supply  his  hunger;  but  the  slave,  though  in  the 
most  starving  condition,  dare  not  do  either,  on 
Ijenaliy  of  death,  or  some  severe  punishment.^' 

Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  minister  of  the  Me- 
thodist Episcopal  Church,  in  Marlborougli, 
Mass.  who  lived  some  years  in  Georgia,  says  : 

"  The  southern  horses  and  dogs  have  enough 
to  eat,  and  good  care  is  taken  of  tliem  ;  but  south- 
ern negroes — who  can  describe  their  misery  and 
their  wretchedness,  their  nakedness  and  their 
cruel  scoiu-gings  !  None  but  God.  Sliould  we 
whip  our  horses  as  they  whip  their  slaves,  even 
for  small  offences,  we  should  expose  ourselves  to 
the  p  enalty  of  the  law." 

Rev.  PniNEAS  Smith,  Centreville,  Allegany 
county.  New  York,  who  has  resided  four  years 
in  the  midst  of  southern  slavery — 

"  Avarice  and  cruelty  are  twin  sisters  ;  and  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  declare  before  the  world,  as  my 
deliberate  opinion,  that  there  is  less  compassion 
for  working  slaves  at  the  south,  than  for  working 
oxen  at  the  north." 

Stephen  Sewall,  Esq.  Winthrop,  Maine,  a 
member  of  the  Congregational  Church,  and  late 
agent  of  the  Winthrop  Manfacturing  Company, 
who  resided  five  years  in  Alabama,  says — 

"I  do  not  think  that  brutes,  not  even  horses, 
are  treated  with  so  much  cruelty  as  American 
slaves." 

If  the  preceding  considerations  arc  insuflieicnf 
to  remove  incredulity  respecting  the  cruelties 
suffered  by  slaves,  and  if  northern  objectors  stiil 
say,  '  We  might  believe  sucli  tilings  of  savages, 
but  that  civilized  men,  and  republicans,  in  this 
Christian  country,  can  openly  and  by  system  per- 
petrate such  enormities,  is  impossible  :' — to  such 
we  rep!}',  that  this  incredulity  of  the  people  of  i 
the  free  states,  is  not  only  discreditable  to  their 
intelhgcncr,  but  to  their  consistency. 

Who  is  so  ignorant  as  not  to  know,  or  so  in- 
credulous as  to  disbelieve,  that  the  early  Baptists 
of  New  England  were  fined,  imprisoned,  scourg. 
ed,  and  finally  banished  by  our  puritan  fore- 
fathers ? — and  that  the  Quakers  were  confined  in 
dungeons,  publicly  whipped  at  the  cart-tail,  had 
their  ears  cut  off,  cleft  sticks  put  upon  their 
tongues,  and  that  five  of  them,  four  men  and  one 
woman,  were  hung  on  Boston  Common,  for  pro- 
pagating the  sentiments  of  the  Society  of  Friends  ? 
Who  discredits  the  fact,  that  the  civil  authorities 
in  Massachusette,  less  than  a  hundred  and  fiflv 


Ohjectioni  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


113 


veare  agjo,  confined  in  the  public  jail  a  little  girl 
of  four  years  old,  and  publicly  hung  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Burroughs,  and  eighteen  other  persons,  mostly 
women,  and  killed  another,  (Giles  Corey,)  by  ex- 
tending him  upon  liis  back,  and  piling  weights 
upon  his  breast  till  he  was  crushed  to  death* — and 
tliis  for  no  other  reason  than  that  these  men  and 
women,  and  this  little  child,  were  accused  by 
others  of  beic itching  them. 

Even  the  children  in  Connecticut,  know  that 
Uie  following  was  once  a  law  of  that  state : 

"  No  food  or  lodging  shall  be  allowed  to  a 
Quaker.  If  any  person  turns  Quaker,  he  shall 
be  banished,  and  not  be  suffered  to  return  on  pain 
of  death." 

These  objectors  can  readily  believe  the  fact, 
that  in  the  city  of  New  York,  less  than  a  hundred 
years  since,  thirteen  persons  were  publicly  burn- 
ed to  death,  over  a  slow  fire :  and  that  the  Icgis- 
lature  of  tlie  same  State  took  under  its  paternal 
care  tiie  African  slave-trade,  and  declared  that 
"  all  encouragement  should  be  given  to  tlie  direct 
importation  of  slaves;  that  all  smuggling  of 
slaves  should  be  condemned,  as  an  eminent  dis- 
couragement  to  the  fair  trader." 

They  do  not  call  in  question  the  fact  that  the 
African  slave-trade  was  carried  on  from  the  ports 
of  the  free  states  till  within  thirty  years;  that 
even  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  were 
actively  engaged  in  it,  shortly  before  the  revolu- 
tionary war  ;t  that  as  late  as  1807,  no  less  than 
fifty-nine  of  the  vessels  engaged  in  that  trade, 
were  sent  out  from  the  little  state  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  had  then  onlj^  about  seventy  thou- 
sand inliabitants  ;  tliat  among  those  most  largely 
engaged  in  those  foul  crimes,  are  the  men  v/hom 
the  people  of  Rhode  Island  delight  to  honor  :  that 
the  man  who  dipped  most  deeply  in  tliat  trade  of 
blood  (James  De  Wolf,)  and  amassed  a  most 
princely  fortune  by  it,  was  not  long  since  their 
senator  in  Congress  ;  and  another,  who  was  cap- 
tain of  one  of  his  vessels,  was  recently  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  the  state. 

They  can  believe,  too,  all  the  horrors  of  the 
middle  passage,  the  chaing,  suffocation,  maim- 
ings,  stranglings,  starvation,  drownings,  and  cold 
blooded  murders,  atrocities  perpetrated  on  board 
these  slave-ship?  by  their  own  citizens,  perhaps 
by  their  own  townsmen  and  neighbors — possibly 
by  their  own  fathers :  but  oh  !  they  '  can't  believe 
that  the  slavdholders  can  be  so  hard-hearted  to- 
wards their  slaves  as  to  treat  them  with  great 
cruelty.'  They  can  believe  that  His  Holiness  the 
Pope,  with  his  cardinals,  bishops  and  priests,  have 

*  Judgfi  Scwall,  of  Mass.  in  liis  dian',  describing  this 
horrible  scene,  says  that  wlipn  the  tongue  of  the  poor  suf- 
futer  had,  in  the  extremity  of  his  dying  agony,  protruded 
(rem  his  mouth,  a  person  in  attendance  tools  his  cane  and 
thrust  it  hack  into  his  nioutii. 

t  See  Life  and  Travels  of  John  Woolman,  page  92. 

8 


tortured,  broken  on  the  wheel,  and  burned  to 
death  thousands  of  Protestants — that  eighty  thou- 
sand of  the  Anabaptists  were  slaughtered  in  Ger- 
many— that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  blame- 
less Waldenses,  Huguenots  and  Lollards,  wert! 
torn  in  pieces  by  the  most  titled  dignitaries  of 
clmrch  and  state,  and  iha.t  almost  every  professed- 
ly Christian  sect,  has,  at  some  period  of  its  histori/. 
persecuted  unto  blood  those  who  dissented  from 
their  creed.  They  can  believe,  also,  that  in  Bos- 
ton, New  York,  Utica,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati, 
Alton,  and  in  scores  of  other  cities  and  villages 
of  the  free  states,  '  gentlemen  of  property  and 
standing,'  led  on  by  civil  officers,  by  members 
of  state  legislatures,  and  of  Congress,  by  judges 
and  attorneys-general,  by  editors  of  newspa- 
pers, and  by  professed  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
have  organized  mobs,  broken  up  lawful  meetings 
of  peaceable  citizens,  committed  assault  and  bat- 
tery upon  their  persons,  knocked  them  down  with 
stones,  led  them  about  with  ropes,  dragged  them 
from  their  beds  at  midnight,  gagged  and  forced 
them  into  vehicles,  and  driven  them  into  unfre- 
quented places,  and  there  tormented  and  dis- 
figured them; — that  they  have  rifled  their  houses, 
made  bonfires  of  their  furniture  in  the  streets, 
burned  to  the  ground,  or  torn  in  pieces  the  halls 
or  churches  in  which  they  were  assembled — at- 
tacked them  with  deadly  weapons,  stabbed  some, 
shot  others,  and  killed  ONE.  They  can  believe  all 
this — and  further,  that  a  majority  of  the  citizens 
in  the  places  where  these  outrages  have  been 
committed,  connived  at  them ;  and  by  refusing 
to  indict  the  perpetrators,  or,  if  they  were  in- 
dicted, by  combining  to  secure  their  acquittal, 
and  rejoicing  in  it,  have  publicly  adopted  these 
felonies  as  their  own.  All  these  things  they  can 
believe  without  hesitation,  and  that  they  have 
even  been  done  by  their  own  acquaintances, 
neighbors,  relatives ;  perhaps  those  with  whom 
they  interchange  courtesies,  those  for  whom  they 
vote,  or  to  whose  salaries  they  contribute — but 
yet,  oh  I  they  can  never  believe  that  slaveholders 
inflict  cruelties  upon  their  slaves  ! 

They  can  give  full  credence  to  the  kidnapping, 
imprisonment,  and  deliberate  murder  of  William 
Morgan,  and  that  by  men  of  high  standing  in 
society ;  they  can  believe  that  this  deed  was 
aided  and  abetted,  and  the  murderers  screened 
from  justice,  by  a  large  number  of  influential  per- 
sons, who  were  virtually  accomplices,  either  be- 
fore or  after  the  fact ;  and  tliat  this  combination 
was  so  effectual,  as  successfully  to  defy  and  tri- 
umph over  the  combined  powers  of  the  govern- 
ment ; — yet  that  those  who  constantly  rob  men 
of  their  time,  liberty,  and  wages,  and  all  their 
rights,  should  rob  them  of  bits  of  flesh,  and  oc- 
casionally of  a  tooth,  make  their  backs  bleed,  and 
put  fetters  on  their  legs,  is  too  moustroua  to  b» 


114 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


credited!  Further  these  same  persons,  who  'can't 
beheve'  that  slaveholders  are  so  iron-hearted  as 
to  ill-treat  their  slaves,  believe  that  the  very 
elite  of  these  slaveholders,  those  most  highly  es- 
teemed and  honored  among  them,  are  continu- 
ally daring  each  other  to  mortal  conflict,  and  in 
the  presence  of  mutual  friends,  taking  deadly 
aim  at  each  other's  hearts,  with  settled  purpose 
to  kill,  if  possible.  That  among  the  most  dis- 
tinguished governors  of  slave  states,  among  their 
most  celebrated  judges,  senators,  and  representa- 
tives in  Congress,  there  is  hardly  one,  who  has 
not  either  killed,  or  tried  to  kill,  or  aided  and 
abetted  his  friends  in  trying  to  kill,  one  or  more 
individuals.  That  pistols,  dirks,  bowie  knives,  or 
other  instruments  of  death,  are  generally  carried 
throughout  the  slave  states — and  that  deadly 
affrays  with  them,  in  the  streets  of  their  cities 
and  villages,  are  matters  of  daily  occurrence  ; 
that  the  sons  of  slaveholders  in  southern  colleges, 
bully,  threaten,  and  fire  upon  their  teachers,  and 
their  teachers  upon  them  ;  that  during  the  last 
summer,  in  the  most  celebrated  seat  of  science 
and  literature  in  the  south,  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  professors  were  attacked  by  more  than 
seventy  armed  students,  and,  in  the  words  of  a 
Virginia  paper,  were  obliged  '  to  conceal  them- 
selves from  their  fury ;'  also  that  almost  all  the 
riots  and  violence  that  occur  in  northern  col- 
leges, are  produced  by  the  turbulence  and  lawless 
passions  of  southern  students.  That  such  are 
the  furious  passions  of  slaveholders,  no  conside- 
rations of  personal  respect,  none  for  the  proprie- 
ties of  life,  none  for  the  honor  of  our  national 
legislature,  none  for  the  character  of  our  country 
abroad,  can  restrain  the  slaveholding  members  of 
Congress  from  the  most  disgraceful  personal  en- 
counters on  the  floor  of  our  nation's  legislature — 
smiting  their  fists  in  each  other's  faces,  throttling, 
and  even  kicking  and  trying  to  gouge  each  other 
— that  even  during  the  session  of  the  Congress 
just  closed,  no  less  than  six  slaveholders,  taking 
fire  at  words  spoken  in  debate,  have  either  rushed 
at  each  other's  throats,  or  kicked,  or  struck,  or 
attempted  to  knock  each  other  down  ;  and  that 
in  all  these  instances,  they  would  doubtless  have 
killed  each  other,  if  their  friends  had  not  separat- 
ed them.  Further,  they  know  full  well,  these 
were  not  insignificant,  vulgar  blackguards,  elect- 
ed because  they  were  the  head  bullies  and  bottle- 
holders  in  a  boxing  ring,  or  because  their  consti- 
tuents went  drunk  to  the  ballot  box ;  but  they 
were  some  of  the  most  conspicuous  members  of 
the  House — one  of  them  a  former  speaker. 

Our  newspapers  are  full  of  these  and  similar 
daily  occurrences  among  slaveholders,  copied 
verbatim  from  their  own  accounts  of  them  in 
their  own  papers,  and  all  this  we  fully  credit ; 
no  man  is  simpleton  enough  to  cry  out,  '  Oh,  I 


can't  believe  that  slaveholders  do  such  things,' 
— and  yet  when  we  turn  to  the  treatment  wliich 
these  men  mete  out  to  their  slaves,  and  show  that 
they  are  in  the  habitual  practice  of  striking,  kick- 
ing,  knocking  down  and  shooting  them  as  .veil  as 
each  other — the  look  of  blank  incredulity  that 
comes  over  northern  dough-faces,  is  a  study  for 
a  painter  :  and  then  the  sentimental  outcry,  with 
eyes  and  hands  uplifted,  '  Oh,  indeed,  I  can't  be- 
lieve the  slaveholders  are  so  cruel  to  their  slaves.' 
Most  amiable  and  touching  charity  !  Truly,  of 
all  Yankee  notions  and  free  state  products,  there 
is  nothing  like  a  '  dough  face  ' — the  great  north- 
ern staple  for  the  southern  market— '-made  to 
order,'  in  any  quantity,  and  always  on  hand. 
'Dough  faces!'  Thanks  to  a  slaveholder's  con- 
tempt for  the  name,  with  its  immortality  of  truth, 
infamy  and  scorn.* 

Though  the  people  of  the  free  states  affect  to  ~ 
disbelieve  the  cruelties  perpetrated  upon  the 
slaves,  yet  slaveholders  believe  each  other  guilty 
of  them,  and  speak  of  them  with  the  utmost  free- 
dom. If  slaveholders  disbelieve  any  statement 
of  cruelty  inflicted  upon  a  slave,  it  is  not  on  ac- 
count of  its  enormity.  The  traveler  at  the  south 
will  hear  in  Delaware,  and  in  all  parts  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia,  from  the  lips  of  slaveholders 
statements  of  the  most  horrible  cruelties  sufi'ered  by 
the  s\a.vcsfarther  south,  in  theCarolinasand  Geor- 
gia  ;  when  he  finds  himself  in  those  states  he  will 
hear  similar  accounts  about  the  treatment  of  the 
slaves  in  Florida  and  Louisiana ;  and  in  Missou- 
ri, Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  he  will  hear  of  the 
tragedies  enacted  on  the  plantations  in  Arkansas, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi.  Since  Anti-Slavery 
Societies  have  been  m  operation,  and  slaveholders 
have  found  themselves  on  trial  before  the  world, 
and  put  upon  their  good  behavior,  northern 
slaveholders  have  grown  cautious,  and  now  often 
substitute  denials  and  set  defences,  for  the  volun- 
tary testimony  about  cruelty  in  the  far  south, 
which,  before  that  period,  was  given  with  entire 
freedom.  Still,  however,  occasionally  the 'truth 
will  out,'  as  the  reader  will  see  by-tj»e  following 
testimony  of  an  East  Tennessee  newspaper,  in 
which,  speaking  of  the  droves  of  slaves  taken  « 
from  the  upper  country  to  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  &c.,  the  editor  says,  they  are  'travel- 
ing to  a  region  where  their  condition  throusfh  time 

WILL  BE  SECOND  ONLY  TO  THAT  OF   THE    WRETCHED 

CREATURES  ix  HELL.'  Scc  "  Maryvillfi  Intelli- 
gencer,"  of  Oct.  4,  1835.  Distant  cruelties  and 
cruelties  long  past,  have  been  till  recently,  favor- 
ite topics  with  slaveholders.  They  have  not  only 
been  ready   to  acknowledge  that    their  fathers 

*  "Doe  face,"  which  owes  its  pateniity  to  John  Ran 
dolph,  age  has  mellowed  into  "dough  face" — a  cog 
nonien  quite  as  expressive  and  Appropriate,  if  not  as  clasr 
ical 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


115 


have  exercised  great  cruelty  toward  their  slaves, 
but  have  voluntarily,  in  their  official  acts,  made 
proclamation  of  it  and  entered  it  on  their  public 
records.  The  Legislature  of  North  Carolina,  in 
1798,  branded  the  successive  legislatures  of  that 
state  for  more  than  thirty  years  previous,  with  the 
infamy  of  treatment  towards  their  slaves,  which 
they  pronounce  to  be  '  disgraceful  to  humanity, 
and  degrading  in  the  highest  degree  to  the  laws 
and  principles  of  a  free.  Christian,  and  enlightened 
country.'  This  treatment  was  the  enactment  and 
perpetuation  of  a  most  barbarous  and  cruel  law. 
But  enough.  As  the  objector  can  and  does 
believe  all  the  preceding  facts,  if  he  still 
'  can't  believe '  as  to  the  cruelties  of  slavehold- 
ers, it  would  be  barbarous  to  tantalize  his  inca- 
pacity either  with  evidence  or  argument.  Let 
liim  have  the  benefit  of  the  act  in  such  case  made 
and  provided. 

Having  showTi  that  the  mcredulity  of  the  ob- 
jector respecting  the  cruelty  inflicted  upon  the 
slaves,  is  discreditable  to  his  consistency,  we 
now  proceed  to  show  that  it  is  equally  so  to  his 
intelligence. 

Whoever  disbelieves  the  foregoing  statements 
of  cruelties,  on  the  ground  of  their  enormity,  pro- 
claims his  own  ignorance  of  the  nature  and  histo- 
ry of  man.  What !  incredulous  about  the  atro- 
cities perpetrated  by  those  who  hold  human  be- 
ings as  property,  to  be  used  for  their  pleasure, 
when  history  herself  has  done  little  else  m  record- 
ing human  deeds,  than  to  dip  her  blank  chart  in 
the  blood  shed  by  arbitrary  power,  and  unfold  to 
human  gaze  the  great  red  scroll  ?  That  cruelty  is 
the  natural  effect  of  arbitrary  power,  has  been  the 
result  of  all  experience,  and  the  voice  of  univer- 
sal testimony  since  the  world  began.  Shall  hu- 
man nature's  axioms,  six  thousand  years  old,  go 
for -nothing?  Are  the  combined  product  of  hu- 
man experience,  and  the  concurrent  records  of 
human  character,  to  be  set  down  as  '  old  wives' 
fables  ?'  To  disbelieve  that  arbitrary  power  na- 
turally and  habitually  perpetrates  cruelties,  where 
it  can  do  it  with  impunity,  is  not  only  ignorance 
of  man,  but  of  things.  It  is  to  be  blind  to  innu- 
merable  proofs  which  are  before  every  man's  eyes ; 
proofs  that  are  stereot3rped  in  the  very  words  and 
phrases  that  are  on  every  one's  lips.  Take  for 
example  the  words  despot  and  despotic.  Despot, 
signifies  etymologically,  merely  one  who  possesses 
arbitrary  power,  and  at  first,  it  was  used  to  desig- 
nate those  alone  who  possessed  unlimited  power 
over  human  beings,  entirely  irrespective  of  the 
way  in  which  they  exercised  it,  whether  merciful- 
ly or  cruelly.  But  the  fact,  that  those  who  pos- 
sessed such  power,  made  their  subjects  their  vic- 
tims, has  wrought  a  total  change  in  the  popular 
meaning  of  the  word.  It  now  signifies,  in  com- 
mon parlance,  not  one  who  possesses  unlimited 


power  over  others,  but  one  who  exercises  the  power 
that  he  has,whether  little  or  much,  cruelly.  So  des- 
potic, instead  of  meaning  what  it  once  did,  some, 
thing  pertaining  to  the  possess/on  of  unlimited  pow- 
er, signifies  something  pertaining  to  the  capricious, 
unmerciful  and  relentless  exercise  of  such  power. 

The  word  tyrant,  is  another  example — former- 
ly it  implied  merely  a  possession  of  arbitrary 
power,  but  from  the  invariable  abuse  of  such 
power  by  its  possessors,  the  proper  and  entire 
meaning  of  the  word  is  lost,  and  it  now  signifies 
merely  one  who  exercises  power  to  the  injury  of 
others.  The  words  t}Tannical  and  tyranny  fol- 
low the  same  analogy.  So  the  word  arbitrary  ; 
which  formerly  implied  that  which  pertains  to 
the  will  of  one,  independently  of  others ;  but  from 
the  fact  that  those  who  had  no  restraint  upon 
their  wills,  were  invariably  capricious,  unreason- 
able and  oppressive,  these  words  convey  accu- 
rately the  present  sense  of  arbitrary,  when  ap- 
plied  to  a  person. 

How  can  the  objector  persist  in  disbelieving 
that  cruelty  is  the  natural  effect  of  arbitrary  pow- 
er, when  the  very  words  of  every  day,  rise  up  on 
his  lips  in  testimony  against  him — words  which 
once  signified  the  ?nere  possession  of  arbitrary 
power,  but  have  lost  their  meaning,  and  now  s'g- 
nify  merely  its  cruel  exercise  ;  because  such  a  use 
of  it  has  been  proved  by  the  experience  of  the 
world,  to  be  inseparable  from  its  possession — 
words  now  frigid  with  horror,  and  never  used 
fven  by  the  objector  without  feeling  a  cold  chill 
run  over  him. 

Arbitrary  power  is  to  the  mind  what  alcohol  is 
to  the  body  ;  it  intoxicates.  Man  loves  power. 
It  is  perhaps  the  strongest  human  passion  ;  and 
the  more  absolute  the  power,  the  stronger  the  de- 
sire for  it ;  and  the  more  it  is  desired,  the  more  its 
exercise  is  enjoyed :  this  enjoyment  is  to  human  na . 
ture  a  fearful  temptation, — generally  aniDvermatch 
for  it.  Hence  it  is  true,  with  hardly  an  exception, 
that  arbitrary  power  is  abused  in  proportion  as  it 
is  desired.  The  fact  that  a  person  intensely  de. 
sires  power  over  others,  without  restraint,  shows 
the  absolute  necessity  of  restraint.  ^VTiat  vvoman 
would  marry  a  man  who  made  it  a  condition  that 
he  should  have  the  power  to  divorce  her  whenever 
he  pleased  ?  Oh  !  he  might  never  wish  to  exer- 
cise it,  but  the  power  he  would  have  !  No  wo. 
man,  not  stark  mad,  would  trust  her  happiness  in 
such  hands. 

Would  a  fatlier  apprentice  his  son  to  a  master, 
who  insisted  that  his  power  over  the  lau  should  be 
absolute  1  Tlie  master  might  perhaps,  never 
toish  to  commit  a  battery  upon  the  boy,  but  if  he 
should,  he  insists  upon  having  full  swing  I  He 
who  would  leave  his  son  in  the  clutches  of  such  a 
wretch,  would  be  bled  and  blistered  for  a  lunatic  as 
,  soon  as  his  friends  could  get  their  hands  upon  him. 


116 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


The  possession  of  power,  even  when  greatly  rc- 
Blrained,  is  sucli  a  fiery  stimulant,  that  its  lodge- 
ment in  human  hands  is  always  perilous.  Give 
men  the  handling  of  immense  sums  of  money,  and 
all  the  eyes  of  Argus  and  the  hands  of  Briarcus 
can  hardly  prevent  embezzlement. 

The  mutual  and  ceaseless  aceusations  of  the 
t-.vo  great  political  parties  in  this  country,  show 
the  universal  belief  that  this  tendency  of  human 
nature  to  abuse  power,  is  so  strong,  that  even  the 
most  powerful  legal  restraints  arc  insufficient  for 
its  safe  custody.  From  congress  and  state  legisla- 
tures down  to  grog-shop  caucuses  and  street- 
wranglings,  each  party  keeps  up  an  incessant  din 
about  abuses  of  power.  Hardly  an  officer,  either 
of  the  general  or  state  governments,  from  the 
President  down  to  the  ten  thousand  postmasters, 
and  from  governors  to  the  fifty  thousand  consta- 
bles, escapes  the  charge  of  '  abuse  of  power. ^  '  Op- 
pression,'  '  Extortion,'  '  Venality,'  '  Bribery,' 
•Corruption,' 'Perjury,'  'Misrule,'  'Spoils,'  'De- 
falcation,' stand  on  every  newspaper.  Now  with. 
out  any  estimate  of  the  lies  told  in  these  mu- 
tual charges,  there  is  truth  enough  to  make  each 
party  ready  to  believe  of  the  other,  and  of  then- 
best  men  too,  any  abuse  of  power,  however  mon- 
Btrous.  As  is  the  State,  so  is  the  Church.  From 
General  Conferences  to  circuit  preachers ;  and 
from  General  Assemblies  to  church  sessions, 
abuses  of  power  spring  up  as  weeds  from  the 
dungliill. 

All  legal  restraints  are  framed  upon  the  pre- 
sumption, that  men  will  abuse  their  power  if  not 
hemmed  in  by  them.  This  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
all  those  checks  and  balances  contrived  for  keep- 
ing governments  upon  their  centres.  If  there  is 
among  human  convictions  one  that  is  invariable 
and  universal,  it  is,  that  when  men  possess  unre- 
strained power  over  others,  over  their  time,  choice, 
conscience,  persons,  votes,  or  means  of  subsist- 
ence, they  are  under  great  temptations  to  abuse 
it ;  and  that  the  intensity  with  which  such  power 
is  desired,  generally  measures  the  certainty  and 
the  degree  of  its  abuse. 

That  American  slaveholders  possess  a  power 
over  their  slaves  which  is  virtually  absolute,  none 
v,'ill  deny.*  That  they  desire  this  absolute  pow- 
er, is  shown  from  the  fact  of  their  holding  and 
exercising  it,  and  making  laws  to  confirm  and  en- 
large it.  That  the  desire  to  possess  this  power, 
every  tittle  of  it,,  is  intense,  is  proved  by  the  fact, 
that  slaveholders  cling  to  it  with  such  obstinate 

*  The  following  extracts  from  the  laws  of  slave-states  are 
proofs  sufficinnt. 

"ThP  slave  is  KNTIRELY  subject  to  the  AVILL  of  his 
uiastor." — Louisiana  Civil  Code,  Art.  2T3. 

"  Slaves  shall  be  deemed,  sold,  taken,  reputed,  and  ad- 
jud^'ed  in  law  to  bo  chattels  pergonal,  in  the  liand.s  of  their 
owners  and  possessors,  and  their  executors,  administrators 
and  assigns,  to  all  intents,  constrictions,  and  imir 
pos-Es,  wiiATsoEVKR." — Lawj  of  South  Carolina,  2  Brcv. 
Dig.  2-i9 ;  Prince's  Digest,  446,  &c. 


tenacity,  as  well  as  by  all  their  doings  and 
sayings,  their  threats,  cursings  and  gnashings 
against  all  who  denounce  tlie  exercise  of  such 
power  as  usurpation  and  outrage,  and  counsel  its 
immediate  abrogation. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case — from  the  laws  of 
mind,  such  power,  so  intensely  desired,  griped 
with  such  a  death. clutch,  and  with  such  fierce 
spurnings  of  all  curtailment  or  restraint,  eannot  but 
be  abused.  Privations  and  inflictions  must  be  its 
natural,  habitual  products,  with  ever  and  anon, 
terror,  torture,  and  despair  let  loose  to  do  their 
worst  upon  the  helpless  victims. 

Though  power  over  others  is  in  every  case  lia- 
ble to  be  used  to  their  injury,  yet,  in  almost  all 
cases,  the  subject  individual  is  shielded  from  great 
outrages  by  strong  safeguards.  If  he  have  talents, 
or  learning,  or  wealth,  or  office,  or  personal  re- 
spectability,  or  influential  friends,  these,  with  the 
protection  of  law  and  the  rights  of  citizenship, 
stand  round  him  as  a  body  guard  :  and  even  if  he 
lacked  all  these,  3'ct,  had  he  the  same  color,  fea- 
tures, form,  dialect,  habits,  and  associations  with 
the  privileged  caste  of  society,  he  would  find  in 
them  a  shield  from  many  injuries,  which  would  be 
invited,  if  in  these  respects  he  differed  widely 
from  the  rest  of  the  community,  and  was  on  that 
account  regarded  with  disgust  and  aversion.  This 
is  the  condition  of  the  slave  ;  not  only  is  he  de- 
prived of  the  artificial  safeguards  of  the  law,  but 
has  none  of  those  natural  safeguards  enume- 
rated above,  which  are  a  protection  to  others.  But 
not  only  is  the  slave  destitute  of  those  peculiari- 
ties, habits,  tastes,  and  acquisitions,  which  b}'  as 
similating  the  possessor  to  the  rest  of  the  commu- 
nity,  excite  their  interest  in  him,  and  thus,  in  a 
measure,  secure  for  him  their  protection  ;  but  he 
possesses  those  peculiarities  of  bodily  organization 
which  are  looked  upon  with  deep  disgust,  con- 
tempt, prejudice,  and  aversion.  Besides  this,  con- 
stant contact  with  the  ignorance  and  stupidity  of 
the  slaves,  their  filth,  rags,  and  nakedness;  their 
cowering  air,  servile  employments,  repulsive  food, 
and  squalid  hovels,  their  purchase  and  sale,  and 
use  as  brutes — all  these  associations,  constantly 
mingling  and  circulating  in  the  minds  of  slave, 
holders,  and  invctcrated  by  the  hourly  irritations 
which  must  assail  all  who  use  human  beings  as 
things,  produce  in  them  a  permanent  state  of  feel- 
ing toward  the  slave,  made  up  of  repulsion  and 
settled  ill-will.  When  we  add  to  this  the  corro- 
sions produced  by  the  petty  thefts  of  slaves,  the 
necessity  of  constant  watching,  their  reluctant 
service,  and  indifference  to  their  master's  interests, 
their  ill-concealed  aversion  to  him,  and  spurning 
of  his  authority ;  and  finally,  that  fact,  as  old  as 
human  nature,  that  men  always  hate  those  whom 
they  oppress,  and  oppress  those  whom  they  hate, 
thus  oppression  and  hatred  mutually  begclti  g  and 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


117 


perpetuating  each  other — and  we  have  a  raging 
c  ftiupound  of  licry  elements  and  disturbing  forces, 
sj  stimulating  and  inflaming  tlie  mind  of  the 
slaveholder  against  the  slave,  that  it  cannot  but 
break  forth  upon  him  with  desolating  fury. 

To  deny  that  cruelty  is  the  spontaneous  and 
uniform  product  of  arbitrary  power,  and  tliat  the 
natural  and  controlling  tendency  of  such  power  is 
to  make  its  possessor  cruel,  oppressive,  and  re- 
vengeful towards  those  who  are  subjected  to  his 
control,  is,  we  repeat,  to  set  at  nought  the  com- 
bined experience  of  the  human  race,  to  invalidate 
its  testimony,  and  to  reverse  its  decisions  from 
time  immemorial. 

A  volume  might  be  filled  with  the  testimony 
of  American  slaveholders  alone,  to  the  truth  of 
the  preceding  position.  We  subjoin  a  few  illus- 
trations, and  first,  th'e  memorable  declaration  of 
President  Jefferson,  who  lived  and  died  a  slave- 
holder. It  has  been  published  a  thousand  times, 
and  will  live  forever.  In  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia," 
sixth  Philadelphia  edition,  p.  251,  he  says, — 

"  The  WHOLE  COMMERCE  between  master 
and  slave,  is  a  PERPETUAL  EXERCISE  of 
the  most  boisterous  passions,  the  most  unremit. 
ting  DESPOTISM  on  tiie  one  part,  and  degrad- 
ing  submission  on    the   other The  parent 

storms,  the  child  looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments 
of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of 
smaller  slaves,  GIVES  LOOSE  TO  THE 
WORST  OF  PASSIONS;  and  thus  nursed,  ed- 
ucated, and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot 
but  be  stamped  by  it  with  odious  peculiarities." 

Hon.  Lewis  Summers,  Judge  of  the  General 
Court  of  Virginia,  and  a  slaveholder,  said  in  a 
speech  before  the  Virginia  legislature  in  1832  ; 
(see  Richmond  Whig  of  Jan.  26,  1832,) 

"  A  slave  population  exercises  the  most  perni- 
cious influence  upon  the  manners,  habits  an  cha- 
racter,  of  those  among  whom  it  exists.  Lisping 
infancy  learns  the  vocabulary  of  abusive  epithets, 
and  struts  the  embryo  tyrant  of  its  little  domain. 
The  consciousness  of  superior  destiny  takes  pos- 
session of  his  mind  at  its  earliest  dawning,  and 
love  of  power  and  rule,  '  grows  with  his  growth, 
and  strengthens  with  his  strength.'  Unless  en- 
abled to  rise  above  the  operation  of  those  powerful 
causes,  he  enters  the  world  with  miserable  notions 
of  self-importance,  and  under  the  government  of 
an  unbridled  temper." 

The  late  Judge  Tucker  of  Virginia,  a  slave- 
holder, and  Professor  of  Law  in  the  University  of 
William  and  Mary,  in  his  "  Letter  to  a  Member 
of  the  Virginia  Legislature,"   1801,  says, — 

"  I  say  nothing  of  the  baneful  effects  of  slavery 
on  our  moral  character,  because  I  know  you  have 
been  long  sensible  of  this  point." 

The  Presbyterian  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  consisting  of  all  the  clergy  of  that  de- 
nomination in  those  states,  with  a  lay  representa- 
tion from  the  churches,  most,  if  not  all  of  whom 


arc  slaveholders,  published  a  report  on  slavery  in 
1834,  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract. 

"  Those  only  who  have  the  management  of  ecr. 
vants,  know  what  the  hardening  effect  of  it  is 
upon  their  own  feelings  towards  them.  There  is 
no  necessity  to  dwell  on  this  point,  as  all  owners 
and  managers  fully  understand  it.  He  who  com 
mcnces  to  manage  them  with  tenderness  and  with 
a  willingness  to  favor  them  in  every  way,  must  be 
watcJifui,  otherwise  he  will  settle  down  in  indiffer 
ence,  if  not  severity." 

General  William  H.  Harrison,  now  of  Ohio, 
son  of  the  late  Governor  Harrison  of  Virginia,  a 
slaveholder,  while  minister  from  the  United  States 
to  the  Republic  of  Colombia,  wrote  a  letter  to 
General  Simon  Bolivar,  then  President  of  that 
Republic,  just  as  he  was  about  assuming  despotic 
power.  The  letter  is  dated  Bogota,  Sept.  22, 
1826.     The  following  is  an  extract. 

"  From  a  knowledge  of  your  own  disposition 
and  present  feelings,  your  excellency  will  not  be 
willing  to  believe  that  you  could  ever  be  brought 
to  an  act  of  tyranny,  or  even  to  execute  justice 
with  unnecessary  rigor.  But  trust  me.  sir,  there 
is  nothing  more  corrupting,  nothing  more  destrue- 
tive  of  the  noblest  and  finest  feelings  of  our  na- 
ture than  the  exercise  of  unlimited  power.  The 
man,  who  in  the  beginning  of  such  a  career,  might 
shudder  at  the  idea  of  taking  away  the  life  of  a 
fellow-being,  might  soon  have  his  conscience  so 
seared  by  the  repetition  of  crime,  that  the  agonies 
of  his  murdered  victims  might  become  music  to  his 
soul,  and  the  drippings  of  the  scaffold  afford  blood 
to  swim  in.     History  is  full  of  such  excesses." 

William  H.  Fitzhugh,  Esq.  of  Virginia,  a  slave- 
holder, says, — "  Slavery,  in  its  mildest  form,  is 
cruel  and  unnatural ;  its  injurious  effects  on  our 
morals  and  habits  are  mutually  felt." 

Hon.  Samuel  S.  Nicholas,  late  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  of  Kentucky,  and  a  slaveholder, 
in  a  speech  before  the  legislature  of  that  state, 
Jan.  1837,  says, — 

•'  The  deliberate  convictions  of  the  most  ma- 
tured consideration  I  can  give  the  subject,  are, 
that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  a  most  serious  in- 
jury to  the  habits,  manners  and  morals  of  our 
white  population — that  it  leads  to  sloth,  indolence, 
dissipation,  and  vice." 

Dr.  Thomas  Cooper,  late  President  of  the  Col- 
lege of  South  Carolina,  in  a  note  to  his  edition  of 
the  "Institutes  of  Justinian,"  page  413,  says, — 

"  All  absolute  power  has  a  direct  tendency,  not 
only  to  detract  from  the  happiness  of  the  persona 
who  are   subject  to  it,  but  to  deprave  the  good 

qualities  of  (hose  who  possess  it the  whole 

history  of  human  nature,  in  the  present  and  every 
former  age,  will  justify  me  in  saying  that  such  is 
the  tendency  of  power  on  the  one  Iiand  and  slavery 
on  the  other." 

A  South  Carolina  slaveholder,  whose  name  is 
with  the  executive  committee  of  the  Am.  A.  S. 
Society,  says,  in  a  letter,  dated  April  4,  1838: — 

•'  I  think  it  (slavery)  ruinous  to  the  temper  and 


118 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


to  our  spiritual  life  ;  it  is  a  tiiorn  in  the  flesh,  for 
ever  ami  for  ever  goading  us  on  to  say  and  to  do 
what  the  Eternal  God  cannot  but  be  displeased 
with.  I  speak  from  experience,  and  oh !  my  de. 
sire  is  to  be  delivered  from  it." 

Monsieur  C.  C.  Robin,  who  was  a  resident  of 
Louisiana  from  1802  to  1806,  published  a  work 
on  that  country  ;  in  which,  speaking  of  the  effect 
of  slaveholding  on  masters  and  their  children,  he 
says  : — 

"The  young  Creoles  make  the  negroes  who 
surround  them  the  play-things  of  their  whims : 
they  flog,  for  pastime,  those  of  tlicir  own  age,  just 
as  their  fathers  flog  the  others  at  their  will.  These 
young  Creoles,  arrived  at  the  ago  in  which  tlie 
passions  are  impetuous,  do  not  know  how  to  bear 
contradiction;  they  will  have  every  thing  done 
which  they  command,  possible  or  not ;  and  in  de- 
fault of  this,  they  avenge  their  offended  pride  by 
multiplied  punishments." 

Dr.  George  Buchanan,  of  Baltimore,  Maryland, 
memher  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
in  an  oration  at  Baltimore,  July  4, 1791,  said  : — 

"  For  such  are  the  effects  of  subjecting  man  to 
slavery,  that  it  destroys  every  hunia7ie principle, 
vitiates  the  mind,  instils  ideas  of  unlawful  cruel- 
ties, and  eventually  subverts  the  springs  of  govern- 
ment."— BuclianarCs  Oration,  p.  12. 

President  Edwards  the  younger,  in  a  sermon 
before  the  Comiecticiit  Abolition  Society,  in  1791, 
pajfe  8,  says : — 

"  Slavery  has  a  most  direct  tendency  to  liaug'ii- 
tiness,  and  a  domineering  spirit  and  conduct  in 
the  proprietors  of  the  slaves,  in  their  children,  and 
in  all  who  have  the  control  of  them.  A  man  who 
has  been  bred  up  in  domineering  over  negroes, 
can  scarcely  avoid  contracting  such  a  habit  of 
haughtiness  and  domination  as  will  express  itself 
in  his  general  treatment  of  mankind,  whether  in 
his  private  capacity,  or  in  any  office,  civil  or  mili- 
tary, with  which  he  may  be  invested." 

The  celebrated  Montesquieu,  in  his  "  Spirit 
of  the  Laws,"  thus  describes  the  effect  of  slave- 
holding  upon  the  master  : — 

"The  master  contracts  all  sorts  of  bad  habits  ; 
and  becomes  haughty,  passionate,  obdurate,  vin. 
dictive,  voluptuous,  and  cruel." 

WiLBERFORCE,  in  his  spceeh  at  the  anniversary 
of  the  London  Anti-Slavery  Society,  in  March, 
1828,  said  :— 

"  It  is  utterly  impossible  that  they  who  live  in 
the  administration  of  the  petty  despotism  of  a  slave 
community,  whose  minds  have  been  warped  and 
polluted  by  that  contamination,  should  not  lose 
that  respect  for  their  fellow  creatures  over  whom 
they  tyrannize,  which  is  essential  in  the  nature 
and  moral  being  of  man,  to  rescue  them  from  the 
abuse  of  power  over  their  prostrate  fellow  crea- 
tures." 

In  the  great  debate,  in  the  British  Parliament, 
•n  the  African  slave-trade,  Mr.  Wiiitbread  said  : 

"  Arbitrary  power  would  spoil  the  hearts  of  the 
best." 


But  we  need  not  multiply  proofs  to  establish 
our  position  :  it  is  sustained  by  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  sages,  philosophers,  poets,  statesmen, 
and  moralists,  in  every  j)eriod  of  the  world  ;  and 
who  can  marvel  that  those  in  all  ages  who  have 
wisel}'  pondered  men  and  things,  should  be  unani- 
mous in  such  testimony,  when  the  history  of  arbi. 
trary  power  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  begin- 
ning of  time,  struggling  through  heaps  of  slain, 
and  trailing  her  parchments  in  blood. 

Time  would  fail  to  begin  with  the  first  despot 
and  track  down  the  carnage  step  by  step.  All 
nations,  all  ages,  ail  climes  crowd  forward  as  wit. 
nesses,  v/iili  their  scars,  and  wounds,  and  dying 
agonies. 

But  to  survey  a  multitude  bewilders ;  let  us  look 
at  a  single  nation.  We  instance  Rome  ;  both  be- 
cause  its  history  is  more  generally  known,  and 
because  it  furnishes  a  larger  proportion  of  in- 
stances, in  which  arbitrary  power  was  exercised 
with  comparative  mildness,  than  any  other  nation 
ancient  or  modern.  And  yet,  her  whole  exist, 
enee  was  a  tragedy,  every  actor  was  an  cxecu- 
tioner,  the  curtain  rose  amidst  shrieks  and  fell  up- 
on corpses,  and  the  only  shifting  of  the  scenes 
was  from  blood  to  blood.  The  whole  world  stood 
aghast,  as  under  sentence  of  death,  awaiting  exe- 
cution, and  all  nations  and  tongues  were  driven, 
with  her  own  citizens,  as  sheep  to  the  slaughter. 
Of  her  seven  kings,  her  hundreds  of  consuls,  tri 
bancs,  decemvirs,  and  dictators,  and  her  fifty  em 
perors,  there  is  hardly  one  whose  name  has  come 
down  to  us  unstained  by  horrible  abuses  of  power ; 
and  that  too,  notwithstanding  we  have  mere 
shreds  of  the  history  of  many  of  them,  owing  to 
their  antiquity,  or  to  the  perturbed  times  in  which 
they  lived ;  and  these  shreds  gathered  from  the 
records  of  their  own  partial  countrymen,  who 
wrote  and  sung  their  praises.  What  docs  this 
prove  ?  Not  that  the  Romans  were  worse  than 
other  men,  nor  that  their  rulers  were  worse  than 
other  Romans,  for  history  does  not  furnish  nobler 
models  of  natural  character  than  many  of  those 
same  rulers,  when  first  invested  with  arbitrary 
power.  Neither  was  it  mainly  because  the  mar- 
tial enterprise  of  the  earlier  Romans  and  the  gross 
sensuality  of  the  later,  hardened  their  hearts  to 
human  suffering.  In  both  periods  of  Roman  his 
tory,  and  in  both  these  classes,  we  find  men,  the 
keen  sympathies,  generosity,  and  benevolence  of 
whose  general  character  embalmed  their  names 
in  the  grateful  memories  of  multitudes.  They 
were  human  biings,  and  possessed  power  without 
restraint — this  unravels  the  mystery. 

Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Emperor  Trajan,  of 
his  moderation,  his  clemency,  his  gushing  sym- 
pathies, his  forgiveness  of  injuries  and  forgetful 
ncss  of  self,  his  tearing  in  pieces  his  own  robe,  to 
furnish  bandages  for  the  wounded — called  by  the 
whole  world  in  his  day,  "  the  best  emperor  of 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


119 


Rome ;"  and  so  affectionately  regarded  by  his  sub- 
jeets,  that,  ever  afterwards,  in  blessing  his  suc- 
ceasors  upon  their  accession  to  power,  they  al- 
ways said,  "  May  you  have  the  virtue  and  good- 
ness  of  Trajan  I"  yet  the  deadly  conflict  of  gladia- 
tors who  are  trained  to  kill  each  other,  to  make 
sport  for  the  spectators,  furnished  his  chief  pas- 
time. At  one  time  he  kept  up  those  spectacles 
for  123  days  in  succession.  In  the  tortures  which 
he  inflicted  on  Cliristians,  fire  and  poison,  dag- 
gers and  dungeons,  wild  beasts  and  serpents,  and 
the  rack,  did  their  worst.  He  threw  into  the  sea, 
Clemens,  the  venerable  bishop  of  Rome,  with  an 
anchor  about  his  neck  ;  and  tossed  to  the  famish- 
ing lions  in  the  amphitheatre  the  aged  Ignatius. 

Pliny  the  younger,  who  was  proconsul  under 
Trajan,  may  well  be  mentioned  in  connection 
with  the  emperor,  as  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
truth,  that  goodness  and  aniiablene?s  towards  one 
class  of  men  is  often  turned  into  cruelty  towards 
another.  History  can  hardly  show  a  more  gentle 
and  lovely  character  than  Pliny.  While  pleading 
at  the  bar,  he  always  sought  out  the  grievances 
of  the  poorest  and  most  despised  persons,  entered 
into  their  wrongs  with  his  whole  soul,  and  never 
took  a  fee.  Who  can  read  his  admirable  letters 
without  being  touched  by  their  tenderness  and 
warmed  by  their  benignity  and  philanthropy :  and 
yet,  this  tender-hearted  Pliny  coolly  plied  with  ex- 
cruciating torture  two  spotless  females,  who  had 
served  as  deaconesses  in  the  Christian  church, 
hoping  to  extort  from  them  matter  of  accusation 
against  the  Christians.  He  commanded  Christians 
to  abjure  their  faith,  invoke  the  gods,  pour  out  liba- 
tions to  the  statues  of  the  emperor,  burn  incense  to 
idols,  and  curse  Christ.  If  they  refused,  he  or- 
dered them  to  execution. 

Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Emperor  Titus — so 
beloved  for  his  mild  virtues  and  compassionate 
regard  for  the  suffering,  that  he  was  named  "  The 
Delight  of  Mankind  ;"  so  tender  of  the  lives  of  his 
subjects  that  he  took  the  office  of  high  priest,  that 
his  hands  might  never  be  defiled  with  blood  ;  and 
was  heard  to  declare,  with  tears,  that  he  had  ra- 
ther die  than  put  another  to  death.  So  intent 
upon  making  others  happy,  tliat  when  once  about 
to  retire  to  sleep,  and  not  being  able  to  recall  any 
particular  act  of  beneficence  performed  during 
the  day,  he  cried  out  in  anguish,  "  Alas !  I  have 
lost  a  day !"  And,  finally,  whom  the  learned 
Kennet,  in  his  Roman  Antiquities,  characterizes 
as  "  the  only  prince  in  the  world  that  has  the  cha- 
racter of  never  doing  an  ill  action."  Yet,  wit- 
nessing the  mortal  combats  of  the  captives  taken 
in  war,  kiUing  each  other  in  the  amphitheatre, 
amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  populace,  was  a 
favorite  amusement  with  Titus.  At  one  time  he 
exhibited  shows  of  gladiators,  which  lasted  one 


hundred  days,  during  which  the  amphitheatre 
was  flooded  with  human  blood.  At  another  of 
his  public  exhibitions  he  caused  five  thousand  wild 
beasts  to  be  baited  in  the  amphitheatre.  During 
the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  he  set  ambushes  to  seize 
the  famishing  Jews,  who  stole  out  of  the  city  by 
night  to  glean  food  in  the  valleys  :  these  he  would 
first  dreadfully  scourge,  then  torment  them  w  ith  all 
conceivable  tortures,  and,  at  last,  crucify  them  be- 
fore the  wall  of  the  city.  According  to  Josephus,  not 
less  than  five  hundred  a  day  were  thus  tormented. 
And  when  many  of  the  Jews,  frantic  with  famine, 
deserted  to  the  Romans,  Titus  cut  off  their  hands 
and  drove  them  back.  After  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  he  dragged  to  Rome  one  hundred 
thousand  captives,  sold  them  as  slaves,  and  scat- 
tered them  th'rough  every  province  of  the  empire. 
The  kindness,  condescension,  and  forbearance 
of  Adrian  were  proverbial ;  he  was  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  orators  of  his  age ;  and  when 
pleading  the  cause  of  injured  innocence,  would 
melt  and  overwhelm  the  auditors  by  the  pathos 
of  his  appeals.  It  was  his  constant  maxim,  that 
he  was  an  Emperor,  not  for  his  own  good,  but 
for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow  creatures.  He  stoop- 
ed to  relieve  the  wants  of  the  meanest  of  his  sub- 
jects, and  would  peril  his  life  by  visiting  them 
when  sick  of  infectious  diseases ;  he  prohibited, 
by  law,  masters  from  killing  their  slaves,  gave  to 
slaves  legal  trial,  and  exempted  them  from  tor- 
ture ;  yet  towards  certain  individuals  and  classes, 
he  showed  himself  a  monster  of  cruelty.  He 
prided  himself  on  his  knowledge  of  architecture, 
and  ordered  to  execution  the  most  celebrated 
architect  of  Rome,  because  he  had  criticised  one 
of  the  Emperor's  designs.  He  banislied  all  the 
Jews  from  their  native  land,  and  drove  them 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  and  unloosed  the  blood- 
hounds of  persecution  to  rend  in  pieces  his 
Christian  subjects. 

'  The  gentleness  and  benignity  of  the  Emperor 
Aurelius,  have  been  celebrated  in  story  and  song. 
History  says  of  him,  'Nothing  could  quench  his 
desire  of  being  a  blessing  to  mankind  ;'  and  Pope's 
eulogy  of  him  is  in  the  mouth  of  every  school- 
boy— '  Like  good  Aurelius,  let  him  reign  ;'  and  yet, 
'  good  Aurelius,'  lifted  the  flood  gates  of  the 
fourth,  and  one  of  the  most  terrible  persecutions 
against  Cliristians  that  ever  raged.  He  sent  or- 
ders  into  different  parts  of  his  empire,  to  have  the 
Christians  murdered  who  would  not  deny  Christ. 
The  blameless  Polycarp,  trembling  under  the 
weight  of  a  hundred  years,  was  dragged  to  the 
stake  and  burned  to  ashes.  Pothinus,  Bishop  of 
Lyons,  at  the  age  of  ninety,  was  dragged  through 
the  streets,  beaten,  stoned,  trampled  upon  by  the 
soldiers,  and  loft  to  perish.  Tender  virgins  were 
put  into  nets,  and  thrown  to  infuriated  wild  bulls ; 


120 


Objections  Considered — Cruelties  Incredible. 


others  were  fastened  in  red  hot  iron  chairs;  and 
venerable  matrons  were  thrown  to  be  devoured  by 
dogs. 

Constantino  the  Great  has  been  the  admiration 
of  Christendom  for  his  virtues.  The  early  Chris, 
tian  writers  adorn  his  justice,  benevolence  and 
piety  with  the  most  exalted  eulogry.  He  was  bap- 
tized, and  admitted  to  the  Christian  church.  He 
abrogated  Paganism,  and  made  Christianity  the 
religion  of  his  empire  ;  he  attended  the  councils 
of  the  early  fathers  of  the  church,  consulted  with 
the  bishops,  and  devoted  himself  with  the  most 
untiring  zeal  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity, 
and  to  the  promotion  of  peace  and  love  among 
its  professors  ;  he  convened  the  Council  of  Nice, 
to  settle  disputes  which  had  long  distracted  the 
church,  appeared  in  the  assembly  with  admirable 
modesty  and  temper,  moderated  the  heats  of  the 
contending  parties,  implored  them  to  exercise 
mutual  forbearance,  and  exhorted  them  to  love 
unfeigned,  to  forgive  one  another,  as  they  hoped 
to  be  forgiven  by  Christ.  Who  would  not  think 
it  uncharitable  to  accuse  such  a  man  of  barbarity 
in  the  exercise  of  power  ? — and  yet  he  drove 
Arius  and  his  associates  into  banishment,  for 
opinion's  sake,  denounced  death  against  all  with 
whom  his  books  should  afterwards  be  found,  and 
prohibited,  on  pain  of  death,  the  exercise,  how- 
ever peaceably,  of  the  functions  of  any  other  re- 
ligion than  Christianity.  In  a  fit  of  jealousy  and 
rage,  he  ordered  his  innocent  son,  Crispus,  to 
execution,  without  granting  him  a  hearing  ;  and 
upon  finding  him  innocent,  killed  his  own  wife, 
who  had  falsely  accused  him. 

To  the  preceding  may  be  added  Theodosius  the 
Great,  the  last  Roman  emperor  before  the  division 
of  the  empire.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Christian 
church,  and  in  his  zeal  against  paganism,  and 
what  he  deemed  heresy,  surpassed  all  who  were 
before  him.  The  Christian  writers  of  his  time 
speak  of  him  as  a  most  illustrious  model  of  justice, 
generosity,  magnanimity,  benevolence,  and  every 
virtue.  And  yet  Theodosius  denounced  capital 
punishments  against  those  who  held  '  heretical' 
opinions,  and  commanded  inter-marriage  between 
cousins  to  be  punished  by  burning  the  parties 
alive.  On  hraring  that  the  people  of  Antioch 
had  demolished  the  statues  set  up  in  that  city, 
in  honor  of  himself,  and  had  threatened  the  gov- 
ernor, he  flew  into  a  transport  of  fury,  ordered 
the  city  to  be  laid  in  ashes,  and  all  the  inhabitants 
to  be  slaughtered  ;  and  upon  hearing  of  a  resist- 
ance to  his  authority  in  Thessalonica,  in  which 
one  of  his  lieutenants  was  killed,  he  instantly  or- 
dered a  general  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  ;  and 
in  obedience  to  his  command,  seven  thousand 
men,  women  and  children  were  butchered  in  the 
space  of  three  hours. 

The  foregoing  are  a  few  of  many  instances  in 


the  history  of  Rome,  and  of  a  countless  m  altitude 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  illustrating  the  truth, 
that  the  lodgement  of  arbitrary  power,  in  the  best 
human  hands,  is  always  a  fearfully  perilous  ex- 
periment ;  that  the  mildest  tempers,  the  mosthu 
mane  and  benevolent  dispositions,  the  most 
blameless  and  conscientious  previous  life,  with 
the  most  rigorous  habits  of  justice,  are  no  securi- 
ty, that,  in  a  moment  of  temptation,  the  possess- 
ors of  such  power  will  not  make  their  subjects 
their  victims ;  illustrating  also  the  truth,  that, 
while  men  may  exhibit  nothing  but  honor,  hon- 
esty, mildness,  justice,  and  generosity,  in  their 
intercourse  with  those  of  their  own  grade,  or  lan- 
guage, or  nation,  or  hue,  they  may  practice 
towards  others,  for  whom  they  have  contempt 
and  aversion,  the  most  revolting  meanness,  per- 
petrate robbery  unceasingly,  and  inflict  the  se- 
verest privations,  and  the  most  barbarous  cruel- 
ties. But  this  is  not  all :  history  is  full  of  exam- 
pies,  showing  not  only  the  effects  of  arbitrary 
power  on  its  victims,  but  its  terrible  reaction  on 
those  who  exercise  it ;  blunting  their  sympathies, 
and  hardening  to  adamant  their  hearts  toward 
them,  at  least,  if  not  toward  the  human  race  gen- 
erally. This  is  shown  in  the  fact,  that  almost 
every  tyrant  in  the  history  of  the  world,  has  en- 
t-ered  upon  the  exercise  of  absolute  power  with 
comparative  moderation ;  multitudes  of  them 
witli  marked  forbearance  and  mildness,  and  not 
a  few  with  the  most  signal  condescension,  mag- 
nanimity, gentleness  and  compassion.  Among 
these  last  are  included  those  who  afterwards  be- 
came the  bloodiest  monsters  that  ever  cursed  the 
earth.  Of  the  Roman  Emperors,  almost  every 
one  of  whom  perpetrated  the  most  barbarous 
atrocities,  Vitellius  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
one  who  cruelly  exercised  his  power  from  the 
outlet.  Most  of  the  other  emperors,  sprung  up 
into  fiends  in  the  hot.bed  of  arbitrary  power.  If 
they  had  not  been  plied  with  its  fiery  stimulants, 
but  Iiad  lived  imder  the  legal  restraints  of 
other  men,  instead  of  going  to  the  grave  imder 
the  curses  of  their  generation,  multitudes  might 
have  called  them  blessed. 

The  moderation  which  has  generally  distin- 
guished absolute  monarchs  at  the  commencement 
of  their  reigns,  was  doubtless  in  some  cases  as- 
sumed from  policy  ;  in  the  greater  number,  how- 
ever, as  is  manifest  from  their  history,  it  has  been 
the  natural  workings  of  minds  held  in  check  by 
previous  associations,  and  not  yet  hardened  into 
habits  of  cruelty,  by  being  accustomed  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  power  without  restraint.  But  as  those 
associations  have  weakened,  and  the  wielding  of 
uncontrolled  sway  has  become  a  habit,  like  other 
evil  doers,  they  liavc,  in  the  expressive  language 
of  Scripture,  'waxed  worse  and  worse.' 

For  eighteen   hundred   years   an    involuntary 


Ohjeciions  Considered — Slaveholders'  Denial. 


121 


Ktiudder  hag  nin  over  the  human  race,  at  tho 
mention  of  the  name  of  Nero;  yet,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  reign,  he  burst  into  tears  when 
called  upon  to  sign  the  death-warrant  of  a  crim- 
inal, and  exclaimed,  'Oh,  that  I  had  never  learn- 
ed to  write  "  His  mildness  and  magnanimity 
won  the  aflections  of  his  subjects  ;  and  it  was  not 
till  the  poison  of  absolute  power  had  worked  with- 
in his  nature  for  years,  that  it  swelled  him  into  a 
monster. 

Tiberius,  Claudius,  and  Caligula,  began  the 
exercise  of  their  power  with  singular  forbearance, 
and  each  grew  into  a  prodigy  of  cruelty.  So 
averse  was  Caligula  to  bloodshed,  that  he  refused 
to  looK  at  a  list  of  conspirators  against  his  own 
life,  which  was  handed  to  him  ;  yet  afterwards,  a 
more  cruel  wretch  never  wielded  a  sceptre.  In 
his  thir^*  for  slaughter,  he  wished  all  the  necks  in 
iioine  one,  that  he  might  cut  it  off  at  a  blow. 

Doinitian,  at  the  commencement  of  liis  reign, 
carried  his  abliorrence  of  cruelty  to  such  lengths, 
that  he  forbad  the  sacrificing  of  oxen,  and  would 
sit  whole  days  on  the  judgment-seat,  reversing 
the  unjust  decisions  of  corrupt  judges ;  yet  after- 
wards, he  suqjassed  even  Nero  in  cruelty.  The 
latter  was  content  to  torture  and  kill  by  proxy, 
and  without  being  a  spectator;  but  Domitian 
could  not  be  denied  the  luxury  of  seeing  his  vic- 
tims writlie,  and  hearing  them  shriek  ;  and  often 
with  his  own  hand  directed  the  instrument  of 
torLure,  especially  when  some  illustrious  senator 
or  patrician  was  to  be  killed  by  piece-meal. 
Commodus  began  with  gentleness  and  conde- 
scension, but  soon  became  a  terror  and  a  scourge, 
outstripping  in  his  atrocities  most  of  his  prede- 
cessors. Maximin  too,was  just  and  generous  when 
first  invested  with  power,  but  afterwards  rioted 
m  slaughter  with  the  relish  of  a  fiend.  History 
has  well  said  of  this  monarch,  '  the  change  in  his 


disposition  may  readily  serve  to  show  how  dan- 
gerous a  thing  is  power,  that  could  transform  a 
person  of  such  rigid  virtues  into  such  a  monster.' 

Instances  almost  innumerable  might  be  fur 
nished  in  the  history  of  every  age,  illustrating 
the  blunting  of  sympathies,  and  the  total  trans, 
formations  of  character  wrought  in  individuals  by 
the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power.  Not  to  detain 
the  reader  with  long  details,  let  a  single  instance 
suffice. 

Perhaps  no  man  has  lived  in  modern  times, 
whose  name  excites  such  horror  as  that  of  Robes- 
pierre. Yet  it  is  notorious  that  he  was  naturally 
of  a  benevolent  disposition,  and  tender  sympa- 
thies. 

"  Before  the  revolution,  when  as  a  judge  in  his 
native  city  of  Arras  he  had  to  pronounce  judg- 
ment on  an  assassin,  he  took  no  food  for  two 
days  afterwards,  but  was  heard  frequently  ex- 
claiming, '  I  am  sure  he  was  guilty  ;  he  is  a  vil- 
lain :  but  yet,  to  put  a  human  being  to  death  !  1' 
He  could  not  support  the  idea ;  and  that  the 
same  necessity  might  not  recur,  he  relinquished 
his  judicial  office. — (See  Laponneray's  Life  of 
Robespierre,  p.  8.)  Afterwards,  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1791,  he  urged  strongly  the  abolition  of 
the  punishment  of  death ;  and  yet,  for  sixteen 
months,  in  1793  and  1794,  till  he  perished  him. 
self  by  the  same  guillotine  which  he  had  so  mer 
cilessly  used  on  others,  no  one  at  Paris  consigned 
and  caused  so  many  fellow-creatures  to  be  put  to 
death  by  it,  with  more  ruthless  insensibility' ." — 
Turner's  Sacred  History  of  the  World,  vol.  2. 
p.  119. 

But  it  is  time  we  had  done  with  the  objection, 
"  such  cruelties  are  incredible."  If  the  obj-ec- 
tor  still  reiterates  it,  he  shall  have  the  last  word 
without  farther  molestation. 

An  objection  kindred  to  the  preceding  now 
claims  notice.  It  is  the  profound  induction  that 
slaves  must  be  well  treated  because  slaveholders 
say  they  are  I 


Objection.  II.- 


-SLAVEHOLDERS  PROTEST  THAT  THEY  TREAT  THEIR 
SLAVES  WELL. 


Self-justification  is  human  nature ;  self.con- 
demnation  is  a  sublime  triumph  over  it,  and  as 
rare  as  sublime.  What  culprits  would  be  convict, 
ed,  if  their  own  testimony  were  taken  by  juries  as 
good  evidence  ?  Slaveholders  are  on  trial,  charg- 
ed with  cruel  treatment  to  their  slaves,  and 
though  in  their  own  courts  they  can  clear  them- 
selves by  their  oxen  oaths,*  they  need  not  think 
to  do  it  at  the  bar  of  the  world.     The  denial  of 

*  The  law  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract,  rxists  in 
South  Carolina.  "  If  any  slave  shall  suffer  in  life,  limb  or 
inenibar,  wh.'n  no  white  person  shall  be  present,  or  being 
present,  shall  refuse  to  give  evidence,  the  owner  or  other 
person,  who  shall  have  the  care  of  such  slave,  and  in  whose 
power  such  slave  shall  be,  shall  be  dienied  guilty  of  such  of- 
fencf,  unless  such  owner  or  other  person  shall  make  the 
contrary  appear  by  good  and  sufficient  evidence,  or  shall 


crimes,  by  men  accused  of  them,  goes  for  noth. 
ing  as  evidence  in  all  civilized  courts  ;  while  the 
voluntary  confession  of  them,  is  the  best  evidence 
possible,  as  it  is  testimony  against  themselves,  and 
in  the  face  of  the  strongest  motives  to  conceal 
the  truth.  On  the  preceding  pages,  are  hundreds 
of  just  such  testimonies  ;  the  voluntary-  and  ex- 
plicit testimony  of  slaveholders  against  them- 
selves, their  families  and  ancestors,  their  constit- 
uents and  their  rulers  ;  against  their  characters 
and  their  memories  ;   against  their  justice,  their 

BY  HIS  OWN  OATH  CLEAR  AND  EXCULPATE  HIMSELF.      AVhich 

oath  every  court  where  such  offence  shall  be  tried,  is  here- 
by empow.?red  to  administer,  and  to  acquit  the  offender,  if 
clear  proof  of  the  offence  be  not  made  by  two  witnesses  at 
least." — 2  Brevard's  Digest,  342.  The  state  of  Louisiana 
has  a  similar  law. 


122 


Objections  Considered — Slaveholders'  Denial. 


honesty,  their  honor  and  their  benevolence. 
Now  let  candor  decide  between  those  two  classes 
of  slaveholders,  which  is  most  entitled  to  credit  ; 
that  which  testifies  in  its  own  favor,  just  as  self- 
love  would  dictate,  or  that  which  testifies  against 
all  selfisli  motives  and  in  spite  of  them  ;  and 
though  it  has  nothing  to  gain,  but  every  thing  to 
lose  by  such  testimony,  still  utters  it. 

But  if  there  were  no  counter  testimony,  if  all 
slavciioldcrs  were  unanimous  in  the  declaration 
that  the  treatment  of  the  slaves  is  good,  such  a 
declaration  would  not  be  entitled  to  a  feather's 
weight  as  testimony  ;  it  is  not  testimony  huiopin. 
ion.  Testimony  respects  matters  of  fact,  not 
matters  of  opinion :  it  is  the  declaration  of  a 
witness  as  to /ac<s,  not  the  giving  of  an  opinion 
as  to  the  nature  or  qualities  of  actions,  or  the 
character  of  a  course  of  conduct.  Slaveholders 
organize  themselves  into  a  tribunal  to  adjudicate 
upon  their  own  conduct,  and  give  us  in  their 
decisions,  their  estimate  of  their  own  character  ; 
informing  us  with  characteristic  modesty,  that 
they  have  a  high  opinion  of  themselves  ;  that  in 
their  own  judgment  they  are  very  mild,  kind,  and 
merciful  gentlemen  !  In  these  conceptions  of  their 
own  merits,  and  of  the  eminent  propriety  of  their 
bearing  towards  their  slaves,  slaveholders  remind 
us  of  the  Spaniard,  who  always  took  off  his  hat 
whenever  he  spoke  of  himself,  and  of  the  Govern- 
or of  Schiraz,  who,  from  a  sense  of  justice  to  his 
own  character  added  to  his  other  titles,  those  of, 
'  Flower  of  Courtesy,'  '  Nutmeg  of  Consola- 
tion,' and  »  Rose  of  Delight.' 

The  sincerity  of  those  worthies,  no  one  calls 
iu  question  ;  their  real  notions  of  their  own  merits 
doubtless  ascended  into  the  sublime  :  but  for 
aught  that  appears,  they  had  not  the  arrogance 
to  demand  that  their  own  notions  of  their  personal 
excellence,  should  be  taken  as  the  proof  of  it. 
Not  so  with  our  slaveholders.  Not  content  with 
offering  incense  at  the  shrine  of  their  own  virtues, 
they  have  the  effrontery  to  demand,  that  the 
rest  of  the  world  shall  offer  it,  because  they  do  ; 
and  shall  implicitly  believe  the  presiding  divini- 
ty to  be  a  good  Spirit  rather  than  a  Devil,  because 
they  call  him  so  !  In  other  words,  since  slave- 
holders profoundly  appreciate  their  own  gentle 
dispositions  toward  their  slaves,  and  their  kind 
treatment  of  them,  and  everywhere  protest  that 
they  do  truly  show  forth  these  rare  excellencies, 
they  demand  that  the  rest  of  the  world  shall  not 
only  believe  that  they  think  so,  but  that  they 
tiiink  rightly ;  that  these  notions  of  themselves 
are  true,  that  their  taking  off  tlicir  hats  to  them- 
selves proves  them  worthy  of  homage,  and  that 
their  assumption  of  the  titles  of.  '  Flower  of 
Kindness,'  and  '  Nutmeg  of  Consolation,'  is 
conclusive  evidence  that  they  deserve  such  ap- 
pellations ! 


Was  there  ever  a  more  ridiculous  doctrine, 
than  that  a  man's  opinion  of  his  own  actions  is 
the  true  standard  for  measuring  them,  and  the 
certificate  of  their  real  qualities  ! — that  his  own 
estimate  of  his  treatment  of  others  is  to  be  taken 
as  the  true  one,  and  such  treatment  be  set  down 
as  good  treatment  upon  the  strength  of  his  judg- 
ment. He  who  argues  the  good  treatment  of  the 
slave,  from  the  slaveholder's  good  opinion  of  such 
treatment,  not  only  argues  against  human  nature 
and  all  history,  his  own  common  sense,  and  even 
the  testimony  of  his  senses,  but  refutes  his  own 
arguments  by  his  daily  practice.  Every  body 
acts  on  the  presumption  that  men's  feelings  will 
vary  with  their  practices  ;  that  the  light  in  which 
they  view  individuals  and  classes,  and  their  feelings 
towards  them,  will  modify  their  opinions  of  the 
treatment  which  they  receive.  In  any  case  of 
treatment  that  affects  himself,  his  church,  or  his 
political  party,  no  man  so  stultifies  himself  as  to 
argue  that  sueh  treatment  must  be  good,  because 
the  author  of  it  thinks  so. 

Who  would  argue  that  the  American  Colonies 
were  well  treated  by  the  mother  country,  because 
parliament  thought  so  ?  Or  that  Poland  was  well 
treated  by  Russia,  because  Nicholas  thought  so  ?  Or 
that  the  treatment  of  the  Chcrokees  by  Georgia 
is  proved  good  b}'  Georgia  notions  of  it  ?  Or  that 
of  the  Greeks  by  the  Turks,  by  Turkish  opinions 
of  it  ?  Or  that  of  the  Jews  b}'  almost  all  nations, 
by  the  judgmentof  their  persecutors  ?  Or  that  of 
the  victims  of  the  Inquisition,  by  the  opinions  of 
the  Inquisitor  general,  or  of  the  Pope  and  his 
cardinals?  Or  that  of  the  Quakers  and  Baptists,  at 
the  hands  of  the  Puritans, — to  be  judged  of  by 
the  opinions  of  the  legislatures  that  authorized, 
and  the  courts  that  carried  it  into  effect.  All 
those  classes  of  persons  did  not,  in  their  own  opin- 
ion,  abuse  tlieir  victims.  If  charged  with  per- 
petrating outrageous  cruelty  upon  them,  all  those 
oppressors  would  have  repelled  the  charge  with 
indignation. 

Our  slaveholders  chime  lustily  the  same  song, 
and  no  man  with  Imman  nature  within  him,  and 
human  history  before  him,  and  with  sense  enough 
to  keep  him  out  of  the  fire,  will  be  gulled  by  such 
professions,  unless  his  itch  to  be  humbugged  has 
put  on  the  type  of  a  downright  chronic  incurable. 
We  repeat  it — wiien  men  speak  of  the  treatment 
of  others  as  being  either  good  or  bad,  their  decla 
rations  are  not  generally  to  be  taken  as  testimony 
to  matters  of  fact,  so  much  as  expressions  of 
their  own  feelings  towards  those  persons  or  class, 
es  who  are  the  subjects  of  such  treatment.  If 
those  persons  are  their  fellow  citizens  ;  if  they  are 
in  the  same  class  of  society  with  themselves  ;  of 
the  same  language,  creed,  and  color  ;  similar  in 
their  habits,   pursuits,  and  sympathies  ;  they  wih 


Oijections  Considered — Slaveholder's  Denial. 


123 


keenly  feel  any  wrong  done  to  them,  and  denounce 
it  as  base,  outrageous  treatment ;  but  let  the 
same  wrongs  be  done  to  persons  of  a  condition  in 
all  respects  the  reverse,  persons  whom  they  habit- 
ually despise,  and  regard  only  in  the  light  of  mere 
conveniences,  to  be  used  for  their  pleasure,  and 
the  idea  that  such  treatment  is  barbarous  will  be 
laughed  at  as  ridiculous.  When  we  hear  slave- 
holders say  that  their  slaves  are  icell  treated,  we 
have  only  to  remember  that  they  are  not  speaking 
of  persons,  but  of  property  ;  not  of  men  and  wo- 
men, but  of  chattels  and  things  ;  not  of  friends 
and  associates,  but  of  vassals  and  victims ;  not 
of  those  whom  they  respect  and  honor,  but  of  those 
whom  they  scorn  and  trample  on  ;  not  of  those  with 
whom  they  sympathize,  and  co-operate,  and 
interchange  courtesies,  but  of  those  whom  they 
regard  with  contempt,  and  aversion,  and  dis. 
dainfully  set  with  the  dogs  of  their  flock. 
Reader,  keep  this  fact  in  your  mind,  and  you  will 
have  a  clue  to  the  slaveholder's  definition  oi^'good 
treatment."  Remember  also,  that  a  part  of  this 
"  good  treatment "  of  which  slaveholders  boast, 
is  plundering  the  slaves  of  all  their  inalienable 
rights,  of  the  ownership  of  their  own  bodies,  of 
the  use  of  their  own  limbs  and  muscles,  of  all  their 
time,  liberty,  and  earnings,  of  the  free  exercise  of 
choice,  of  the  rights  of  marriage  and  parental 
authority,  of  legal  protection,  of  the  right  to  be, 
to  do,  to  go,  to  stay,  to  think,  to  feel,  to  work,  to 
rest,  to  eat,  to  sleep,  to  learn,  to  teach,  to  earn 
money,  and  to  expend  it,  to  visit,  and  to  be  visit- 
ed, to  speak,  to  be  silent,  to  worship  according  to 
conscience,  in  fine,  their  right  to  be  protected  by 
just  and  equal  laws,  and  to  be  amenable  to  such 
only.  Oiall  these  rights  the  slaves  are  plundered  ; 
and  this  is  a  part  of  that  "  good  treatment"  of 
which  their  plunderers  boast  I  What  then  is  the 
rest  of  it  ?  The  above  is  enough  for  a  sample,  at 
least  a  specimen-brick  from  the  kiln.  Reader, 
we  ask  you  no  questions,  but  merely  tell  you  what 
you  know,  when  we  say  that  men  and  women  who 
can  habitually  do  such  things  to  human  beings, 
can  do  any  tmng  to  them. 

The  declarations  of  slaveholders,  that  they  treat 
their  slaves  well,  will  put  no  man  in  a  quandary, 
who  keeps  in  mind  this  simple  principle,  that  the 
state  of  mind  towards  others,  which  leads  one  to 
inflict  cruelties  on  them,  blinds  the  inflicter  to 
the  real  nature  of  his  own  acts.  To  him,  they  do 
not  seem  to  be  cruelties ;  consequently,  when  speak- 
ing of  such  treatment  toward  such  persons,  he  will 
protest  that  it  is  not  cruelty ;  though,  if  inflicted 
upon  himself  or  his  friends,  he  would  indignantly 
stigmatize  it  as  atrocious  barbarity.  The  objector 
equally  overlooks  another  evcry-day  fact  of  hu- 
man  nature,  which  is  this,  that  cruelties  invariably 
cease  to  seem  cruelties  when  the  habit  is  formed, 
though  previously  the  mind  regarded  them  as 
such,  and  shrunk  from  them  with  horror. 


The  following  fact,  related  by  the  late  lament- 
ed Thomas  Pringle,  whose  Life  and  Poems  have 
recently  been  published  in  England,  is  an  appro 
priate  illustration.  Mr.  Pringle  states  it  on  the  au 
thority  of  Captain  W.  F.  Owen,  of  the  Royal 
Navy. 

"  When  his  Majesty's  ships,  the  Leven  and  the 
Barracouta,  employed  in  surveying  the  coast  of 
Africa,  were  at  Mozambique,  in  1823,  the  officers 
were  introduced  to  the  family  of  Senor  Manuel 
Pedro  d'Almeydra,  a  native  of  Portugal,  who 
was  a  considerable  merchant  settled  on  that 
coast ;  and  it  was  an  opinion  agreed  in  by  all, 
that  Donna  Sophia  d'Almeydra  was  the  most  su- 
perior woman  they  had  seen  since  they  left  Eng- 
land. Captain  Owen,  the  leader  of  the  expedi- 
tion, expressing  to  Senor  d'Almeydra  his  detest- 
ation of  slavery,  the  Senor  replied,  'You  will  not 
be  long  here  before  j'ou  change  your  sentiments. 
Look  at  my  Sophia  there.  Before  she  would 
marry  me,  she  made  me  promise  that  I  should 
give  up  the  slave  trade.  When  we  first  settled 
at  Mozambique,  she  was  continually  interceding 
for  the  slaves,  and  she  constantly  wept  tohen  I 
punished  them ;  and  now  she  is  among  the  slaves 
from  morning  to  night ;  she  regulates  the  whole 
of  my  slave  establishment ;  she  inquires  into  eve- 
ry offence  committed  by  them,  pronounces  sen- 
tence upon  the  offender,  and  stands  by  and  sees 
them  punished.^ 

"  To  this,  Mr.  Pringle,  who  was  himself  for 
rix  years  a  resident  of  the  English  settlement  at 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  adds,  'The  writer  of  this 
article  has  seen,  in  the  course  of  five  or  six  years, 
as  great  a  change  upon  English  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen of  respectability,  as  that  described  to  have 
taken  place  in  Donna  Sophia  d'Almeydra ;  and 
one  of  the  individuals  whom  he  has  in  his  eye, 
while  he  writes  this  passage,  lately  confessed  to 
him  this  melancholy  change,  remarking  at  the 
same  time,  '  how  altered  I  am  in  my  feelings 
with  regard  to  slavery.  I  do  not  appear  to  my- 
self the  same  person  I  was  on  my  arrival  in  this 
colony,  and  if  I  would  give  the  world  for  the  feel- 
ings I  tlien  had,  I  could  not  recall  them.'" 

Slaveholders  know  full  well  that  famiharity 
with  slavery  produces  indifference  to  its  cruelties 
and  reconciles  the  mind  to  thera.  The  late  Judge 
Tucker,  a  Virginia  slaveholder  and  professor  of 
law  in  the  University  of  William  and  Mary,  in 
the  appendix  to  his  edition  of  Blackstone's  Com. 
mentarics,  part  2,  pp.  56,  57,  commenting  on 
the  law  of  Virginia  previous  to  1792,  which  out- 
lawed fugitive  slaves,  says  : 

"  Such  are  the  cruelties  to  which  slavery  gives 
rise,  such  the  horrors  to  which  the  mind  becomes 
reconciled  by  its  adoption." 

The  following  facts  from  the  pen  of  Charles 
Stuart,  happily  illustrate  the  same  principle  : 

"  A  young  lady,  the  daughter  of  a  Jamaica 
planter,  was  sent  at  an  early  age  to  school  m 
England,  and  after  completing  her  education,  re- 
turned to  her  native  covmtry. 

"  She  is  now  settled  with  her  husband  and  fami. 


124 


Objections  Considered — Slaveholder's  Denial. 


ly  m  England.  I  visited  her  near  Bath,  early 
last  spring,  (1834.)  Conversing  on  the  ahove  sub- 
ject, the  paralyzing  effects  of  slavcholdiiig  on  the 
heart,  she  said : 

" '  While  at  school  in  England,  I  often  thought 
witli  peculiar  tendtrncss  of  the  kindness  of  a 
slave  who  had  nursed  and  carried  me  about. 
Upon  returning  to  my  father's,  one  of  my  first 
in(juirics  was  about  him.  I  was  deeply  afflicted 
to  find  that  he  was  on  tlie  point  of  undergoing  a 
"  law  flogging  for  having  run  away."  I  threw 
myself  at  my  fathi  r's  feet  and  implored  with  tears, 
his  pardon;  but  my  father  steadily  replied,  that 
it  would  ruin  the  discipline  of  the  plantation,  and 
that  the  punishment  must  take  place.  I  wept  in 
vain,  and  retired  so  grieved  and  disgusted,  that 
for  some  days  after,  I  could  scarcely  bear  with 
patience,  the  sight  of  my  own  father.  But  many 
months  had  not  elapsed  ere  /  was  as  ready  as  any 
body  to  seize  the  domestic  whip,  and  flog  7ny 
slaves  without  hesitation.'' 

"  Tiiis  ladj'  is  one  of  the  most  Christian  and 
noble  minds  of  my  acquaintance.  She  and  her 
husband  distinguished  themselves  several  years 
ago,  in  Jamaica,  by  immediately  emancipating 
their  slaves." 

"  A  lady,  now  in  the  West  Indies,  was  sent  in 
her  infancy,  to  her  friends,  near  Belfast,  in  Ire. 
land,  for  education.  She  remained  under  their 
charge  from  five  to  fifteen  j-earsof  age,  and  grew 
up  every  thing  which  her  friends  could  wish. 
At  fifteen,  she  returned  to  the  West  Indies — was 
married — and  after  some  years  paid  her  friends 
siear  Belfast,  a  second  visit.  Towards  white 
people,  she  was  the  same  elegant,  and  interesting 
woman  as  before ;  apparently  full  of  every  vir- 
tuous  and  tender  feeling  ;  but  towards  the  colored 
people  she  was  like  a  tigress.  If  Wilberforce's 
name  was  mentioned,  she  would  say,  '  Oh,  I 
wish  we  had  the  wretch  in  the  West  Indies,  I 
would  be  one  of  the  first,  to  help  to  tear  his  heart 
out!' — and  then  she  would  tell  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  West  Indian  ladies  used  to  treat  their 
slaves.  '  I  have  often,'  she  said,  '  when  my  wo- 
men have  displeased  me,  snatched  their  baby 
from  their  bosom,  and  running  with  it  to  a  well, 
have  tied  my  shawl  round  its  shoulders  and  pre- 
tended to  be  drowning  it :  oh,  it  was  so  funny  to 
hear  the  mother's  screams !  I' — and  then  she 
laughed  almost  convulsively  at  the  recollection." 

Mr.  John  M.  Nelson,  a  native  of  Virginia, 
whose  testimony  is  on  a  preceding  page,  furnishes 
a  striking  illustration  of  the  principle  in  his  own 
case.     He  says : 

"  When  I  was  quite  a  child,  I  recollect  it  griev- 
ed  me  very  much  to  see  one  tied  up  to  be  whip- 
ped, and  I  used  to  intercede  with  tears  in  their 
behalf,  and  mingle  my  ci  ies  with  theirs,  and  feel 
almost  willing  to  take  part  of  the  punishment. 
Yet  such  is  the  hardening  nature  of  such  scenes, 
tjiat  from  this  kind  of  commiseration  for  the  suf- 
fering slave,  I  became  so  blunted  that  I  could 
not  only  witness  their  stripes  with  composure,  but 
viyself  inflict  them,  and  that  without  remorse. 
When  I  was  perhaps  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of 
ago,  I  undertook  to  correct  a  young  fellow  named 
^cd,  for  eome   supposed  ofTencc,  I  think  it  was 


leaving  a  bridle  out  of  its  proper  place ;  he  be- 
ing  larger  and  stronger  than  myself  took  hold  of 
my  arms  and  held  me,  in  oider  to  prevent  my 
striking  him  ;  this  I  considered  the  height  of  in- 
solence, and  cried  for  help,  wh  n  my  father  and 
mother  both  came  running  to  my  rescue.  My 
father  stripped  and  tied  him,  and  took  him  into 
the  orchard,  where  switches  were  plenty,  and  di- 
rected me  to  whip  him  ;  when  one  switch  wore 
out  he  supplied  me  with  others.  After  I  had 
whipped  him  a  while,  he  fell  on  his  knees  to  un- 
plore  forgiveness,  and  I  kicked  him  in  the  face; 
my  father  said,  '  don't  kick  him  but  whip  him,' 
this  I  did  until  his  back  was  literally  covered  with 
welts." 

W.  C.  GiLDERSLEEVE,  Esq.,  a  native  of  Georgia, 
now  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  Wilkes- 
barre,  Penn.  after  describing  the  flogging  of  a 
slave,  in  which  his  hands  were  tied  together,  and 
the  slave  hoisted  by  a  rope,  so  that  his  feet  could 
rot  touch  the  ground  ;  in  which  condition  one 
hundred  lashes  were  inflicted,  sa3's : 

"  I  stood  by  and  witnessed  the  whole  without 
feeling  the  least  compar^sion  ;  so  hardening  is  the 
influence  of  slavery  that  it  very  much  destroys 
feeling  for  the  slaveJ" 

Mrs.  Child,  in  her  admirable  "Appeal,"  has  tJie 
following  remarks : 

"  The  ladies  who  remove  from  the  free  States 
into  the  slavcholding  ones  almost  invariably  write 
that  the  sight  of  slavery  was  at  first  cAcecdingly 
painful ;  but  that  they  soon  become  habituated  to 
it;  and  after  a  while,  they  are  very  apt  to  vindi. 
cate  the  system,  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  ex- 
tremely convenient  to  have  such  submissive  ser- 
vants. This  reason  was  actually  given  by  a  lady 
of  my  acquaintance,  who  is  considered  an  unusu 
ally  fervent  Christian.  Yet  Christianity  express . 
ly  teaches  us  to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves. 
This  shows  how  dangerous  it  is,  for  even  the 
best  of  us,  to  become  accustomed  to  what  is 
wrong. 

"  A  judicious  and  benevolent  friend  lately  tola 
me  the  story  of  one  of  her  relatives,  who  married 
a  slave  owner,  and  removed  to  his  plantation. 
The  lady  in  question  was  considered  very  amia- 
ble, and  had  a  serene,  affectionate  expression  of 
countenance.  After  several  j^ears  residence 
among  her  slaves,  she  visited  New  England. 
'Her  history  was  written  in  her  face,' said  my 
friend;  '  its  expression  had  changed  into  that  of 
a  fiend.  She  brought  but  few  slaves  with  her  ; 
and  those  few  were  of  course  compelled  to  per- 
form additional  labor.  One  faithful  negro  wo- 
man nursed  the  twins  of  her  mistress,  and  did  all 
the  washing,  ironing,  and  scouring.  If,  after  a 
sleepless  night  with  the  restless  babes,  (driven 
from  the  bosom  of  their  mother,)  she  performed 
her  toilsome  avocations  with  diminished  activity, 
her  mis'ress,  with  her  own  lady-like  hands,  applied 
the  cowskin,  and  the  neighborhood  resounded 
with  the  erics  of  her  victim.  The  instrument  of 
punishment  was  actually  kept  hanging  in  the 
entry,  to  the  no  small  disgust  of  lu  r  New  Eng- 
land visitors.  For  my  part,'  continued  my  friend, 
'  I  did  not  try  to  be  polite  to  her ;  for  I  was  not 
hypocrite  enough  to  conceal  my  indignation.' " 


Objectiov.s  Considered — Slaveholding  Hospitality. 


125 


The  fact  that  the  greatest  cruelties  may  be  ex- 
ercised quite  unconsciously  when  cruelty  has  be- 
come a  habit,  and  that  at  the  same  time,  the 
mind  may  feci  great  sympathy  and  commispiation 
towards  other  persons  and  even  towards  irration- 
al animals,  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Tamer- 
lane the  Great.  In  his  Life,  written  by  himself, 
he  speaks  with  tiic  greatest  sincerity  and  tender- 
ness of  his  grief  at  having  accidentally  crushed 
an  ant ;  and  yet  he  ordered  melted  lead  to  be 
poured  down  the  throats  of  certain  persons  who 
drank  wine  contrary  to  his  commands.  He  was 
manifestly  sincere  in  thinking  himself  humane, 
and  when  speaking  of  the  most  atrocious  cruelties 
perpetrated  by  himself,  it  does  not  seem  to  ruffle 
in  the  least  the  self-complacency  with  which 
he  regards  his  own  humanity  and  piety.  In  one 
place  he  says,  "  I  never  undertook  anything  but  I 
commenced  it  placing  my  faith  on  God  " — and  he 
adds  soon  after,  "  the  people  of  Sliiraz  took  part 
with  Shah  Mansur,  and  put  my  governor  to 
death  ;  I  therefore  ordered  a  general  massacre  of 
all  the  inhabitants.''^ 

It  is  one  of  the  most  common  caprices  of  hu- 
man nature,  for  the  heart  to  become  by  habit,  not 
only  totally  insensible  to  certain  forms  of  cruelty, 
whicii  at  first  gave  it  inexpressible  pain,  but  even 
to  find  its  chief  amusement  in  such  cruelties,  till 
utterly  intoxicated  by  their  stimulation;  while 
at  the  same  time  the  mind  seems  to  be  pained  as 
keenly  as  ever,  at  forms  of  cruelty  to  which  it  has 
not  become  accustomed,  thus  retaining  apparent- 
ly tiie  same  general  susceptibilities.  Illustrations 
of  this  are  to  be  found  every  where ;  one  happens 
to  lie  before  us.  Bourgoing,  in  his  history  of 
modern  Spain,  speaking  of  the  bull  fights,  (he  bar- 
barous national  amusement  of  the  Spaniards,  says : 


"  Yoimg  ladies,  old  men,  people  of  all  ages  and 
of  all  characters,  are  present,  and  yet  the  habit 
of  attending  these  bloody  festivals  does  not  cor- 
rect their  weakness  or  their  timidity,  nor  injure 
the  sweetness  of  their  manners.  I  have  more- 
over known  foreigners,  distinguished  by  the  gen- 
tleness of  their  manners,  who  experienced  at  first 
seeing  a  bull-fight  such  very  violent  emotions  as 
made  them  turn  pale,  and  they  became  ill ;  but, 
notwithstanding,  this  entertainment  became  after- 
wards an  irresistible  attraction,  without  operat- 
ing any  revolution  in  their  characters." 

Modem  State  of  Spain,  by  i.  F.  Bourgoing,  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  from  France  to  the  Court  of  Madrid,  Vol 
ii.,  page  342. 

It  is  the  novelty  of  cruelty,  rather  than  the  de- 
gree, which  repels  most  minds.  Cruelty  in  a  new 
form,  however  slight,  will  often  pain  a  mind  that 
is  totally  unmoved  by  the  most  horrible  cruelties 
in  a  form  to  which  it  is  accustomed.  When 
Pompey  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  popularity  in 
Rome,  he  ordered  some  elephants  to  be  tortured 
in  the  amphitheatre  for  the  amusement  of  the 
populace  ;  this  was  the  first  titne  they  had  wit- 
nessed the  torture  of  those  animals,  and  though 
for  3'ears  accustomed  to  witness  in  the  same 
place,  the  torture  of  lions,  tigers,  leopards,  and 
almost  all  sorts  of  wild  beasts,  as  well  as  that  of 
men  of  all  nations,  and  to  shout  acclamations 
over  their  agonies,  yet,  this  novel  form  of  cruelty 
so  shocked  the  beholders,  that  tiie  most  popular 
man  in  Rome  was  execrated  as  a  cruel  monster, 
and  came  near  falling  a  victim  to  the  fury  of 
those  who  just  before  were  ready  to  adore 
him. 

We  will  now  briefly  notice  another  objection, 
somev  hat  akin  to  the  preceding,  and  based 
mainly  upon  the  same  and  similar  fallacies 


Objection  III.— SLAVEHOLDERS  ARE  PROVERBIAL  FOR  THEIR  KINDNESS. 
HOSPITALITY,  BENEVOLENCE,  AND  GENEROSITY. 


Multitudes  scout  as  fictions  the  cruelties  in. 
flicted  upon  slaves,  because  slaveholders  are  famed 
for  their  courtesy  and  hospitalit3^  They  tell  us 
that  their  generous  and  kind  attentions  to  their 
guests,  and  their  well-known  sympathy  for  the 
suffering,  snfiieiently  prove  the  cliarges  of  cruelty 
brought  against  them  K)  be  calumnies,  of  which 
their  uniform  cliaracter  is  a  triumphant  refutation. 

Now  that  slaveholders  are  proverbially  hospitable 
to  their  guests,  and  spare  neither  pains  nor  expense 
in  ministering  to  their  accommodation  and  plea- 
sure, is  freely  admitted  and  easily  accounted  for. 
Tliat  those  who  make  their  inferiors  work  for 
them,  without  pay,  should  be  courteous  and  hos- 
pitable to  those  of  their  equals  and  superiors  whose 
good  opinions  they  desire,  is  human  nature  in  its 
cvery-day  dress.  The  objection  consists  of  a  fact 
and  an  inference :  the  fact,  that  slaveholders  have 


a  special  care  to  the  accommodation  of  their 
guests;  the  inference,  that  therefore  tliey  must 
seek  the  comfort  of  their  slaves — that  as  they  are 
bland  and  obliging  to  their  equals,  they  must  be 
mild  and  condescending  to  their  inferiors — that 
as  the  wrongs  of  their  own  grade  excite  their  in- 
dignation, and  their  woes  move  their  sympathies, 
they  must  be  touched  by  those  of  their  chattels — 
that  as  they  are  full  of  pains-taking  toward  those 
whose  good  opinions  and  good  ofiices  they  seek, 
they  will,  of  course,  show  special  attention  to 
those  to  whose  good  opinions  they  are  indifferent, 
and  whose  good  ofiices  they  can  compel — that  as 
they  honor  the  literary  and  scientific,  they  must 
treat  with  high  consideration  those  to  whom  they 
deny  the  alphabet — that  as  they  are  courteous  to 
certain  persons,  they  must  be  so  to  "  jiroperty"' — 
eager  to  anticipate  the  wishes  of  visitors,  they 


126 


Objections  Considered — Slaveholding  Hospitality. 


cannot  but  gratify  those  of  their  vassals — jealous 
for  the  rights  of  the  Texans,  quick  to  feel  at  the 
disfranchisement  of  Canadians  and  of  Irishmen, 
alive  to  tlic  oppressions  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
Poles,  they  must  feel  keenly  for  their  negroes ! 
Such  conclusions  from  such  'premises  do  not  call 
for  serious  refutation.  Even  a  half-grown  boy, 
who  should  argue,  that  because  men  have  certain 
feelings  toward  certain  persons  in  certain  circum- 
stcnces,  they  must  liave  the  same  feelings  toward 
all  persons  in  all  circumstances,  or  toward  per- 
sons in  opposite  circumstances,  of  totally  different 
grades,  habits,  and  personal  peculiarities,  might 
fairly  be  set  down  as  a  hopeless  simpleton  :  and 
yet,  men  of  sense  and  reflection  on  other  subjects, 
seem  bent  upon  stultifying  themselves  by  just  such 
shallow  inferences  from  the  fact,  that  slaveholders 
are  hospitable  and  generous  to  certain  persons  in 
certain  grades  of  society  belonging  to  their  own 
caste.  On  the  ground  of  this  reasoning,  all  the 
crimes  ever  committed  may  be  disproved,  by  show, 
ing,  that  their  perpetrators  were  hospitable  and 
generous  to  those  who  sympathized  and  co-oper- 
ated with  them.  To  prove  that  a  man  does  not 
hate  one  of  his  neighbors,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
show  tJiat  he  loves  another;  to  make  it  appear 
that  he  does  not  treat  contemptuously  the  igno- 
rant, he  has  only  to  show  that  he  bows  respect- 
fully to  the  learned  ;  to  demonstrate  that  he  does 
not  disdain  his  inferiors,  lord  it  over  his  depend- 
ents, and  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor,  he  need  only 
show  that  he  is  polite  to  the  rich,  pays  deference 
to  titles  and  office,  and  fawns  for  favor  upon  those 
above  him  !  The  fact  that  a  man  always  smiles 
on  his  customers,  proves  that  he  never  scowls  at 
those  who  dun  him !  and  since  he  has  always  a 
melodious  "good  morning!"  for  "gentlemen  of 
property  and  standing,"  it  is  certain  that  he  never 
snarls  at  beggars.  He  who  is  quick  to  make  room 
for  a  doctor  of  divinity,  will,  of  course,  sec  to  it 
that  he  never  runs  against  a  porter ;  and  he  who 
clears  the  way  for  a  lady,  will  be  sure  never  to  run 
against  a  market-woman,  or  jostle  an  apple-seller's 
board.  If  accused  of  beating  down  his  laimdress 
to  the  lowest  fraction,  of  making  his  boot-black 
call  a  dozen  times  for  his  pay,  of  higghng  and 
screwing  a  fish. boy  till  he  takes  off  two  cents,  or 
of  threatening  to  discharge  his  seamstress  unless 
she  will  work  for  a  shilling  a  day  !  how  easy  to 
brand  it  all  as  slander,  by  showing  that  he  pays 
his  minister  in  advance,  is  generous  in  Christmas 
presents,  gives  a  splendid  new-year's  party,  ex- 
pends hundreds  on  elections,  and  puts  liis  name 
with  a  round  sum  on  the  subscription  paper  of  the 
missionary  society. 

Who  can  forget  the  hospitality  of  King  Herod, 
that  model  of  generosity  "  beyond  all  ancient 
fame,"  who  offered  half  his  kingdom  to  a  guest, 
as  a  com]«nsation  for  an  hour's  amusement. — 


Could  such  a  noble  spirit  have  murdered  Jrfin 
the  Baptist  ?  Incredible !  Joab  too  !  how  his  soft 
heart  was  pierced  at  the  exile  of  Absalom !  and 
how  his  bowels  yearned  to  restore  him  to  his 
home  !  Of  course,  it  is  all  fiction  about  his  assas- 
sinating his  nephew,  Amasa,  and  Abner  the  cap- 
tain of  the  host !  Since  David  twice  spared  the 
life  of  Saul  when  he  came  to  murder  him,  wept 
on  the  neck  of  Jonathan,  threw  himself  upon  the 
ground  in  anguish  when  his  child  sickened,  and 
bewailed,  with  a  broken  heart,  the  loss  of  Absa- 
lom— it  proves  that  he  did  not  coolly  plot  and  de- 
liberately consummate  the  murder  of  Uriah !  As 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  generously 
gave  a  township  of  land  to  General  La  Fayette, 
it  proves  that  they  have  never  defrauded  the  In- 
dians of  theirs  I  So  the  fact,  that  the  slaveholders 
of  the  present  Congress  are,  to  a  man,  favorable 
to  recognizing  the  independence  of  Texas,  with 
her  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  inhabitants,  before  she 
has  achieved  it,  and  before  it  is  recognized  by 
any  other  government,  proves  that  these  same 
slaveholders  do  not  oppose  the  recognition  of  Hay- 
ti,  with  her  million  of  inhabitants,  whose  independ- 
ence  was  achieved  nearly  half  a  century  ago,  and 
which  is  recognized  by  the  most  powerful  gorern- 
ments  on  earth  1 

But,  seriously,  no  man  is  so  slightly  versed  in 
human  nature  as  not  to  know  that  men  habitually 
exercise  the  most  opposite  feelings,  and  indulge 
in  the  most  opposite  practices  toward  different 
persons  or  different  classes  of  persons  around 
them.  No  man  has  ever  lived  who  was  more 
celebrated  for  his  scrupulous  observance  of  the 
most  exact  justice,  and  for  the  illustration  furnish- 
ed in  his  life  of  the  noblest  natural  virtues,  than 
the  Roman  Cato.  His  strict  adherence  to  the 
nicest  rules  of  equity — his  integrity,  honor,  and  in. 
corruptible  faith — his  jealous  watchfulness  over 
the  rights  of  his  fellow  citizens,  and  his  generous 
devotion  to  their  interest,  procured  for  him  the 
sublime  appellation  of  "  The  Just."  Towards/rce- 
men  his  life  was  a  model  of  every  thing  just  and 
noble  :  but  to  his  slaves  he  was  a  monster.  At 
his  meals,  when  the  dishes  were  not  done  to  his 
liking,  or  when  his  slaves  were  careless  or  inat- 
tentive in  serving,  he  would  seize  a  thong  and 
violently  beat  them,  in  presence  of  his  guests. — 
When  they  grew  old  or  diseased,  and  were  no 
longer  serviceable,  however  long  and  faithfully 
they  might  have  served  him,  he  either  turned 
them  adrift  and  left  them  to  perish,  or  starved 
them  to  death  in  his  own  family.  No  facts  in  his 
history  are  better  authenticated  than  these. 

No  people  were  ever  more  hospitable  and  mu- 
nificent  than  the  Romans,  and  none  more  touched 
with  the  sufferings  of  others.  Their  public  thea- 
tres often  rung  with  loud  weeping,  tiiousands  sod 
bing  convulsively  at  once  over  fictitious  woes  and 


Objections  Considered — Slaveholding  Hospitality. 


127 


imaginary  sufferers :  and  yet  these  same  multi- 
tud'.s  would  shout  amidst  the  groans  of  a  thou- 
sand dying  gladiators,  forced  by  their  conquerors 
to  kill  each  other  in  the  amphitheatre  for  the 
amusement  of  the  public.* 

Alexander,  the  tyrant  of  PherjBs,  sobbed  like  a 
child  over  the  misfortunes  of  the  Trojan  queens, 
when  the  tragedy  of  Andromache  and  Hecuba 
was  played  before  him  ;  yet  he  used  to  murder 
his  subjects  every  day  for  no  crime,  and  without 
even  setting  up  the  pretence  of  any,  but  merely 
to  make  himself  sport. 

The  fact  that  slaveholders  may  be  full  of  bene- 
volence and  kindness  toward  their  equals  and  to- 
ward whites  generally,  even  so  much  so  as  to  at- 
tract the  esteem  and  admiration  of  all,  while  they 
treat  with  the  most  inhuman  neglect  their  own 
slaves,  is  well  illustrated  by  a  circumstance  men- 
tioned by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Channing,  of  Boston,  (who 
once  lived  in  Virginia,)  in  his  work  on  slavery, 
p.  162,  1st  edition  : — 

"  I  cannot,"  says  the  doctor,  "  forget  my  feel- 
ings on  visiting  a  hospital  belonging  to  the  plant- 
ation of  a  gentleman  highly  esteemed  for  his  vir- 
tueSj  and  Vvhose  manners  and  conversation  ex- 
pressed much  benevolence  and  conscientiousness. 
When  I  entered  with  him  the  hospidal,  the  first 
object  on  which  my  eye  fell  was  a  young  woman 
very  ill,  probably  approaching  death.  She  was 
stretched  on  the  floor.  Her  head  rested  on  some- 
thing like  a  pillow,  but  her  body  and  limbs  were 
extended  on  the  hard  boards.  The  owner,  I  doubt 
not,  had,  at  least,  as  much  kindness  as  myself; 
but  he  was  so  used  to  sec  the  slaves  living  with, 
out  common  comforts,  that  the  idea  of  unkind- 
ness  in  the  present  instance  did  not  enter  his 
mind." 

Mr.  George  A.  Avery,  an  elder  of  a  Presbyte- 
rian church  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.  who  resided  some 
years  in  Virginia,  says  : — 

"  On  one  occasion  I  was  crossing  the  planta- 
tion and  approaching  the  house  of  a  friend,  when 
I  met  him,  rifle  in  hand,  in  pursuit  of  one  of  his 
negroes,  declaring  he  would  shoot  him  in  a  mo- 
ment if  he  got  his  eye  upon  him.  It  appeared 
that  the  slave  had  refused  to  be  flogged,  and  ran 
off  to  avoid  the  consequences  ;  and  yet  the  gener. 
ous  hospitality  of  this  man  to  myself,  and  white 
friends  generally,  scarcely  knew  any  bounds. 

*  Dr.  Lcland,  in  his  "  Necessity  of  a  Divine  Revelation," 
thus  desciibes  the  prevalence  of  these  shows  among  the 
Romans  ■. — "  They  were  exhibited  at  the  funerals  of  great 
and  rich  men,  and  on  many  other  occasions,  by  the  Roman 
consuls,  prajtovs,  icdiles,  senators,  knights,  priests,  and  al- 
most all  that  bore  great  offices  in  the  state,  as  well  as  by  the 
emperors;  and  in  general,  by  all  that  had  a  mind  to  make 
an  interest  with  the  people,  who  were  e,\travagantly  fond 
of  those  kinds  of  shows.  Not  only  the  men,  but  the  women, 
ran  eagerly  after  them  ;  who  were,  by  the  prevalence  of 
custom,  so  far  divested  of  that  compassion  and  softness 
which  is  natural  to  the  sex,  that  they  took  a  pleasure  in 
seeing  them  kill  one  anotlior,  and  only  desired  that  they 
should  fall  genteelly,  and  in  an  agreeable  attitude.  Such 
was  the  frequency  of  those  shows,  and  so  great  the  number 
of  men  that  were  killed  on  those  occasions,  that  Lipsius  says, 
•  no  war  caused  such  slaugluer  of  mankind,  as  did  these 
sports  of  pleasure,  throughout  the  several  provinces  of  the 
vast  Roman  empire." — Iceland's  JVeces.  of  Div.  Rec.\o\. 
ii.  p.  51. 


"  There  were  amongst  my  slaveholding  friends 
and  acquaintances,  persons  who  were  as  humane 
and  conscientious  as  men  can  be,  and  persist  in 
the  impious  claim  of  property  in  a  fellow  being. 
Still  I  can  recollect  but  one  instance  of  corporal 
punishment,  whether  the  subject  were  male  or 
female,  in  which  the  infliction  was  not  on  the 
bare  back  with  the  raw  hide,  or  a  similar  instru- 
ment,  the  subject  being  tied  during  the  operation 
to  a  post  or  tree.  The  exception  was  under  the 
following  circumstances.  I  had  taken  a  walk  with 
a  friend  on  his  plantation,  and  approaching  his 
gang  of  slaves,  1  sat  down  whilst  he  proceeded  to 
the  spot  where  they  were  at  work ;  and  address- 
ing himself  somewhat  earnestly  to  a  female  who 
was  wielding  the  hoe,  in  a  moment  caught  up 
what  I  supposed  a  tobacco  stick,  (a  stick  some 
three  feet  in  length,  on  which  the  tobacco,  when 
cut,  is  suspended  to  dry,)  about  the  size  of  a  ?n«?i's 
tcrist,  and  laid  on  a  number  of  blows  furiously 
over  her  head.  The  woman  crouched,  and  seem- 
ed stunned  with  the  blows,  but  presently  recom- 
menced  the  motion  of  her  hoe." 

Dr.  David  Nelson,  a  native  of  Tennessee,  and 
late  president  of  Marion  College,  Missouri,  in  a 
lecture  at  Northampton,  Mass.  in  January,  1839, 
made  the  following  statement : — 

"  I  remember  a  young  lady  who  played  well  on 
the  piano,  and  was  very  ready  to  weep  over  any 
fictitious  tale  of  suffering.  I  was  present  when 
one  of  her  slaves  lay  on  the  floor  in  a  high  fever, 
and  we  feared  she  might  not  recover.  I  saw  that 
young  lady  stamp  upon  her  with  her  feet;  and 
the  only  remark  her  mother  made  was,  '  I  am 
afraid  Evelina  is  too  much  prejudiced  against  poor 
Mary.' " 

General  William  Eaton,  for  some  years  U.  S. 
Consul  at  Tunis,  and  comrhander  of  the  expedi- 
tion against  Tripoh,  in  1805,  thus  gives  vent  to 
his  feelings  at  the  sight  of  many  hundreds  of  Sar- 
dinians who  had  been  enslaved  by  the  Tunisians : 

"  Many  have  died  of  grief,  and  the  others  lin- 
ger  out  a  life  less  tolerable  than  death.  Alas ! 
remorse  seizes  my  whole  soul  when  I  reflect,  that 
this  is  indeed  but  a  copy  of  the  very  barbarity 
which  my  eyes  have  seen  in  my  own  native  coun- 
try. How  frequently,  in  the  southern  states  of 
my  own  country,  have  I  seen  loeeping  mothers 
leading  the  guiltless  infant  to  the  sales  with  as 
deep  anguish  as  if  they  led  them  to  the  slaughter ; 
andyetfelt  my  bosom  tranquil  in  the  view  of  these 
aggressions  on  defenceless  humanity.  But  when 
I  see  the  same  enormities  practised  upon  beings 
whose  complexions  and  blood  claim  kindred  with 
my  own,  /  curse  the  perpetrators,  and  loeep  over 
the  tcretched  victims  of  their  rapacity.  Indeed, 
truth  and  justice  demand  from  me  the  confession, 
that  the  Christian  slaves  among  the  barbarians  of 
Africa  are  treated  with  more  humanity  than  the 
African  slaves  among  professing  Christians  of 
civilized  America;  and  yet  here  [in  Tunis]  sensibil. 
ity  bleeds  at  every  pore  for  the  wretches  whom 
fate  has  doomed  to  slavery." 

Rev.  H.  Lyman,  late  pastor  of  the  free  Presby- 
terian Church,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  who  spent  the  win 
ter  of  1832-3  at  the  south,  says :— 


128 


Objections  Considered- 


"•  In  the  interior  of  Mississippi  I  was  invited  to 
the  house  of  a  planter,  where  I  was  reccivi'd  with 
great  cordiahty,  and  entertained  with  marked 
hospitahty. 

'*  There  I  saw  a  master  in  the  midst  of  his 
houseliold  slaves.  The  evening  passed  most  plea- 
santly, as  indeed  it  must,  where  assiduous  hospi- 
talities are  exercised  towards  the  gruest. 

"  Late  in  the  morning;,  when  I  had  gained  the 
tardy  consent  of  my  host  to  go  on  my  way,  as  a 
final  act  of  kindness,  he  called  a  slave  to  show 
me  across  the  fields  by  a  nearer  route  to  the  main 
road.  '  David,'  said  he,  'go  and  show  this  gen- 
tleman as  far  as  the  post-office.  Do  you  know 
the  big  bay  tree  ?'  '  Yes,  sir.'  '  Do  you  know 
where  the  cotton  mill  is  ?'  '  Yes,  sir.'  '  Where 
Ssquire  Malcohn's  old  field  is  ?'  '  Y-e-s,  sir,'  said 
David,  (beginning  to  be  bewildered).  "  Do  you 
know  wliere  Squire  Malcolm's  cotton  field  is  ?' 
'  No,  sir.'  *  No,  sir,'  said  the  enraged  master, 
levelling  his  gun  at  him.  'What  do  you  stand 
here,  saying.  Yes,  yes,  yes,  for,  when  you  don't 
know  ?'  All  this  was  accompanied  wath  threats 
and  imprecations,  and  a  manner  that  contrasted 
strangely  with  the  religious  conversation  and  gen- 
tie  manners  of  the  previous  evening." 

The  Rev.  James  H.  Dickey,  formerly  a  slave- 
holder in  Soutii  Carolina,  now  pastor  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Hennepin,  111.  in  his  "  Review 
of  Nevins'  Biblical  Antiquities,"  after  asserting 
that  slaveholding  tends  to  beget  "  a  spirit  of  cru- 
elty and  tyranny,  and  to  destroy  every  generous 
and  noble  feeling,"  (page  33,)  he  adds  the  follow- 
ing as  a  note  : — 

"  It  may  be  that  this  will  be  considered  censo- 
rious, and  the  proverbial  generosity  and  hospital- 
ity of  the  south  will  be  appealed  to  as  a  full  con- 
futation of  it.  The  writer  thinks  he  can  appre- 
ciate southern  kindness  and  hospitality.  Having 
been  born  in  Virginia,  raised  and  educated  in 
South  Carolina  and  Kentucky,  he  is  altogether 
southern  in  his  feelings,  and  habits,  and  modes  of 
familiar  conversation.     He  can  say  of  the  south 


Slaveholding  Hospitality. 

<f. 
as  Cowper  said  of  England,  '  With  all  thy  faults 
I  love  thee  still,  my  country.'  And  nothing  but 
the  abominations  of  slavery  could  have  induced 
him  willingly  to  forsake  a  land  endeared  to  hin» 
by  all  the  associations  of  childhood  and  youth. 

"  Yet  it  is  candid  to  admit  that  it  is  not  all  gold 
that  glitters.  There  is  a  fictitious  kindness  and 
hospitality.  The  famous  Robin  Hood  was  kind 
and  generous — no  man  more  hospitable — he  rob- 
bed tlie  rich  to  supply  the  necessities  of  the  poor. 
Others  rob  the  poor  to  bestow  gifts  and  lavish 
kindness  and  hospitality  on  their  rich  friends  and 
neighbors.  It  is  an  easy  matter  for  a  man  to  ap- 
pear  kind  and  generous,  when  he  bestows  that 
which  others  have  earned. 

"  I  said,  there  is  a  fictitious  kindness  and  hos- 
pitalit}'.  I  once  knew  a  man  who  left  his  wife 
and  children  three  days,  without  firewood,  with, 
out  bread-stuff,  and  without  shoes,  while  the 
groimd  was  covered  with  snow — that  he  might  in- 
dulge  in  his  cups.  And  when  I  attempted  to 
expostulate  with  him,  he  took  the  subject  out  of 
my  hands,  and  expatiating  on  the  evils  of  intem- 
perance more  eloquently  than  I  could,  concluded 
by  warning  me,  with  tears,  to  avoid  the  snares  oi 
the  latter.  He  had  tender  feelings,  yet  a  hard 
heart.  I  once  knew  a  young  lady  of  polished 
manners  and  accomplished  education,  who  would 
weep  with  sympathy  over  the  fictitious  woes  ex- 
hibited in  a  novel.  And  waking  from  her  reverie 
of  grief,  while  her  e^-e  was  yet  wet  with  tears, 
would  call  her  little  waiter,  and  if  slie  did  not 
appear  at  the  first  call,  would  rap  her  head  with 
her  thimble  till  my  head  ached. 

"  I  knew  a  man  who  was  famed  for  kindly 
sympathies.  He  once  took  off  his  shirt  and  gave 
it  to  a  poor  white  man.  The  same  man  hired  a 
black  man,  and  gave  him  for  his  daily  task, 
through  the  winter,  to  feed  the  beasts,  keep  fires, 
and  niake  one  hundred  rails  :  and  in  case  of  fail- 
ure the  lash  was  applied  so  freely,  that,  in  the 
spring,  his  back  was  one  continued  sore,  from  his 
shoulders  to  his  waist.  Yet  this  man  was  a  pro- 
fessor of  religion,  and  famous  for  his  tender  Sn'm 
pathies  to  white  men  1" 


Objection  IV.—'  NORTHERN  VISITORS  AT  THE  SOUTH  TESTIFY  THAT  THE 
SLAVES  ARE  NOT  CRUELLY  TREATED.' 


Answer  : — Their  knowledge  on  this  point 
must  have  been  derived,  either  from  the  slave- 
holders and  overseers  themselves,  or  from  the 
slaves,  or  from  their  own  observation.  If  from 
the  slaveholders,  their  testimony  has  already 
been  weighed  and  found  wanting  ;  if  they  derived 
it  from  the  slaves,  they  can  hardly  be  so  simple 
as  to  suppose  that  the  guest,  associate  and  friend 
of  the  master,  would  be  likely  to  draw  from  his 
slaves  any  other  tcstimon}-  respecting  his  treat- 
ment of  them,  than  such  as  would  please  him. 
The  great  shrewdness  and  tact  exhibited  by 
slaves  in  kerping  themselves  out  of  difficulty,  when 
close  questioned  by  strangers  as  to  their  treat- 
ment, cannot  fail  to  strike  every  accurate  ob- 
server.    The  following  remarks  of  Chief  Justice 


Henderson,  a  North  Carolina  slaveholder,  in  his 
decision  (in  1830,)  in  the  case  of  the  State  versus 
Charity,  2  Devereau.Vs  Nordi  Carolina  Reports, 
543,  illustrate  the  folly  of  arguing  the  good 
trealment  of  slaves  from  their  own  declarations, 
ichile  in  the  poioer  of  their  masters.  In  the  case 
above  cited,  the  Chief  Justice,  in  refusing  to  per- 
mit a  master  to  give  in  evidence,  declarations 
made  to  him  by  his  slave,  says  of  masters  and 

j  slaves  gencrall}- — 

"  The  master  has  an  almost  absolute  control 

I  over  the  body  and  juind  of  his  slave.     The  mas- 
ter's  will  is  the  slave's  7cill.     All  his  acts,  all  his 

.sayings,   are  made  with  a  view  to  propitiate  hie 

I  master.     His  confessions  are  made,   not  from  a 


love  of  truth,  not  from  a  sense  of  duty,  not  (o 
speak  a  falsehood,  but  to  please  his  master — and 


Objections  Considered — Northern  Visitors. 


120 


It  19  in  vain  that  his  master  tells  him  to  speak  the 
truth,  and  conceals  from  him  how  he  wishes  the 
question  answered.  The  slave  will  ascertain,  or, 
which  is  the  same  thing,  think  that  he  has  ascer- 
tained the  wishes  of  his  master,  and  mould  his 
ANSWER  ACCORDINGLY.  We  therefore  more  often 
get  the  wishes  of  the  master,  or  the  slave's  belief 
of  his  wishes,  than  the  truth." 

The  following  extract  of  a  letter  from  the  Hon. 
Seth  M.  Gates,  member  elect  of  the  next  Con- 
gress, furnishes  a  clue  by  which  to  interpret  the 
looks,  actions,  and  protestations  of  slaves,  when 
in  the  presence  of  their  masters'  guests,  and  the 
pains  sometimes  taken  by  slaveholders,  in  teach- 
ing their  slaves  the  art  of  pretending  that  they 
are  treated  well,  love  their  masters,  are  happy, 
<Stc.     The  letter  is  dated  Leroy,  Jan.  4,  1839. 

"  I  have  sent  your  letter  to  Rev.  Joseph  M. 
Sadd,  Castile,  Genesee  county,  who  resided  five 
years  in  a  slave  state,  and  left,  disgusted  with 
slavery.  I  trust  he  will  give  you  some  facts.  I 
remember  one  fact,  which  his  wife  witnessed.  A 
relative,  where  she  boarded,  returning  to  his 
plantation  after  a  temporary  absence,  was  not 
met  by  his  servants  with  such  demonstrations  ot 
joy  as  was  their  wont.  He  ordered  his  horse 
put  out,  took  down  his  whip,  ordered  his  servants 
to  the  barn,  and  gave  them  a  most  cruel  beating, 
because  they  did  not  run  out  to  meet  him,  and 
pretend  oreat  attachment  to  him.  Mrs.  badd 
had  overheard  the  servants  agreeing  not  to  go 
out,  before  his  return,  as  they  said  they  did  not 
love  /jim— and  this  led  her  to  watch  his  conduct 
to  them.     This  man  was  a  professor  of  rehgion  !" 

If  these  northern  visitors  derived  their  informa- 
tion that  the  slaves  are  not  cruelly  treated  from 
(heir  own  observation,  it  amounts  to  this,  they  did 
not  see  cruelties  inflicted  on  the  slaves.  To 
which  we  reply,  that  the  preceding  pages  con- 
tain testimony  from  hundreds  of  witnesses,  who 
testify  that  they  did  see  the  cruelties  whereof 
they  affirm.  Besides  this,  they  contain  the  sol- 
emn declarations  of  scores  of  slaveholders  them- 
selves, in  all  parts  of  the  slave  states,  that  the 
slaves  are  cruelly  treated.  These  declarations 
are  moreover  fully  corroborated,  by  the  laws  of 
slave  states,  by  a  multitude  of  advertisements  in 
their  newspapers,  describing  runaway  slaves,  by 
their  scars,  brands,  gashes,  maimings,  cropped 
ears,  iron  collars,  chains,  &c.  &c. 

Truly,  after  the  foregoing  array  of  facts  and 
testimony,  and  after  the  objectors'  forces  have 
one  after  another  filed  off  before  them,  now  to 
march  up  a  phalanx  of  northern  visitors,  is  to 
beat  a  retreat.  '  Visitors  I'  What  insight  do 
casual  visitors  get  into  the  tempers  and  daily 
practices  of  those  whom  they  visit,  or  of  the 
treatment  that  their  slaves  receive  at  their  hands, 
especially  if  these  visitors  are  strangers,  and  from 
a  region  where  there  are  no  slaves,  and  which 
claims  to  be  opposed  to  slavery  ?  What  oppor- 
tunity  has  a  stranger,  and  a  temporary  guest,  to 
9 


learn  the  every-day  habits  and  caprices  of  his 
host  ?  Oh,  these  northern  visitors  tell  us  they 
have  visited  scores  of  families  at  the  south,  and 
never  saw  a  master  or  mistress  whip  their  slaves. 
Indeed  !  They  have,  doubtless,  visited  hundreds 
of  families  at  "the  north— did  they  ever  see,  on 
such  occasions,  the  father  or  mother  whip  their 
children  ?  If  so,  they  must  associate  with  very 
ill-bred  persons.  Because  well-bred  parents  do 
not  whip  their  children  in  the  presence,  or  within 
the  hearing  of  their  guests,  are  we  to  infer  that 
they  never  do  it  out  of  their  sight  and  hearing  ? 
But  perhaps  the  fact  that  these  visitors  do  not 
remember  seeing  slaveholders  strike  their  slaves, 
merely  proves,  that  they  had  so  little  feeling  for 
them,  that  though  they  might  be  struck  every 
day  in  their  presence,  yet  as  they  were  only  slaves 
and  '  niggers,'  it  produced  no  effect  upon  them  ; 
consequently  they  have  no  impressions  to  recall. 
These  visitors  have  also  doubtless  rode  with 
scores  of  slaveholder?.  Are  they  quite  certain 
they  ever  saw  them  whip  their  horses  ?  and  can 
they  recall  the  persons,  times,  places,  and  circum- 
stances ?  But  even  if  these  visitors  regarded  the 
slaves  with  some  kind  feelings,  when  they  first 
went  to  the  south,  yetbeinv  constantly  with  their 
oppressors,  seeing  them  used  as  articles  of  proper- 
ty, accustomed  to  hear  them  charged  with  all 
kinds  of  misdemeanors,  their  ears  filled  with  com- 
plaints of  their  laziness,  carelessness,  insolence, 
obstinacy,  stupidity,  thefts,  elopements,  &c.  and 
at  the  same  time,  receiving  themselves  the  most 
gratifying  attentions  and  caresses  from  the  same 
persons,  who,  while  they  make  to  them  these 
representations  of  their  slaves,  are  giving  them 
airings  in  their  coaches,  making  parties  for  them, 
taking  them  on  excursions  of  pleasure,  lavishing 
upon  them  their  choicest  hospitalities,  and  urging 
them  to  protract  indefinitely  their  stay — what 
more  natural  than  for  the  flattered  guest  to  ad- 
mire such  hospitable  people,  catch  their  spirit, 
and  fully  sympathize  with  their  feelings  toward 
their  slaves,  regarding  with  increased  disgust 
and  aversion  those  who  can  habitually  tease  and 
worry  such  loveliness   and  generosity.*     After 

*  Well  saith  the  Scripture,  "  A  gift  blindeth  the  eyes." 
The  slaves  understand  this,  though  tlie  guest  may  not ;  they 
know  very  vcell  that  they  have  no  sympathy  to  expect  from 
their  master's  guests;  that  the  good  cheer  of  tJie  "big 
liouse,"  and  the  attentions  shown  them,  will  gonerally 
commit  them  in  their  master's  favor,  and  against  them- 
selves. Messrs.  Thome  and  Kimball,  in  thoir  late  work; 
state  the  following  fact,  in  illustration  of  this  feeling  among 
the  negro  apprentices  in  Jamaica. 

"  The  governorof  oneof  the  islands,  shortly  after  his  ar- 
rival, dined  with  one  of  the  wealthiest  proprietors.  Tho 
next  day  one  of  the  negroes  of  the  estate  said  to  another, 
"Dencw  gixhner  been  poison' d."  "What  dat  you  say  I" 
inquired  the  other  in  astonishment,  "Degubner  been  poi- 
son'd  !  Dah,  now  I — How  him  poisoned  ■?''  "  Hiin  eat 
massa's  turtle  soup  last  night"  said  the  shrewd  negro.  The 
other  took  his  meaning  at  once ;  and  his  sympathy  for  the 
governor  was  turned  into  concern  for  himself,  when  he 
perceived  that  the  poison  was  one  froni  which  hi  v.'as  Ukel/ 


139 


Ohjections  Considered — Northern  "Visitors. 


the  visitor  had  been  in  contact  with  the  slave- 
holding  spirit  long  enough  to  have  imbibed  it, 
(no  very  tedious  process,)  a  cuff,  or  even  a  kick 
administered  to  a  slave,  would  not  be  likely  to 
give  him  such  a  shock  that  his  memory  would 
long  retain  tlic  traces  of  it.  But  lest  we  do  these 
visitors  injustice,  we  will  suppose  that  they  car- 
ried with  tliem  to  the  south  humane  feelings  for 
the  slave,  and  that  those  feelings  remained  un- 
blunted  ;  still,  what  opportunity  could  they  have 
to  witness  the  actual  condition  of  the  slaves  ? 
They  come  in  contact  with  the  house-servants 
only,  and  as  a  general  thing,  with  none  but  the 
select  ones  of  these,  the  ^ar^r-servants  ;  who 
generally  differ  as  widely  in  their  appearance 
and  treatment  from  the  cooks  and  scullions  in 
the  kitchen,  as  parlor  furniture  does  from  the 
kitchen  utensils.  Certain  servants  are  assigned  to 
the  parlor,  just  as  certain  articles  of  furniture  are 
selected  for  it,  to  be  seen — and  it  is  no  less  ridic- 
ulous to  infer  that  the  kitchen  scullions  are 
clothed  and  treated  like  those  servants  who  wait 
at  the  table,  and  are  in  the  presence  of  guests, 
than  to  infer  that  the  kitchen  is  set  out  with  so- 
fas, ottomans,  piano-fortes,  and  full-length  mir- 
rors, because  the  parlor  is.  But  the  house-slaves 
are  only  a  fraction  of  the  whole  number.  The 
field-hands  constitute  the  great  mass  of  the 
.slaves,  and  these  the  visitors  rarely  get  a  glimpse 
at.  Tliey  are  away  at  their  work  by  day-break, 
and  do  not  return  to  their  huts  till  dark.  Their 
huts  are  commonly  at  some  distance  from  the  mas- 
ter's mansion,  and  the  fields  in  which  they  labor, 
generally  much  farther,  and  out  of  sight.  If  the 
visitor  traverses  the  plantation,  care  is  taken  that 
he  does  not  go  alone ;  if  he  expresses  a  wish  to 
Kce  it,  the  horses  are  saddled,  and  the  master  or 
his  son  gallops  the  rounds  with  him ;  if  he  ex- 
presses a  desire  to  see  the  slaves  at  work,  his 
conductor  will  know  where  to  take  him,  and 
when,  and  which  of  them  to  show  ;  the  overseer, 
too,  knowsijquite  too  well  the  part  he  has  to  act  on 
such  occasions,  to  shock  the  uninitiated  ears  of 
the  visitors  with  the  shrieks  of  his  victims.  It  is 
manifest  that  visitors  can  sec  only  the  least  re- 
pulsive parts  of  slavery,  inasmuch  as  it  is  wholly 
at  the  option  of  the  master,  what  parts  to  show 
them  ;  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  he  can  see  only 
the  outside — and  that,  like  the  outside  of  door- 
knobs and  andirons,  is  furbished  up  to  be  looked 
at.  So  long  as  it  is  human  nature  to  wear  the 
best  side  out,  so  long  the  northern  guests  of 
southern  slaveholders  will  see  next  to  nothing  of 
the  reality  of  slavery.  Those  visitors  may  still 
keep  up  their  autumnal  migrations  to  the  slave 
states,  and,  after  a  hasty  survey  of  the  tinael 
hung  before  the  curtain  of  slavery,  without  a  sin- 
to  sufftT  more  than  his  excellency. "—imajicrncjion  in  the 
fVett  Indies,  p.  33<. 


gle  glance  behind  it,  and  at  the  paint  and  varnish 
that  cover  up  dead  men's  bones,  and  while  those 
who  have  hoaxed  them  with  their  smooth  stories, 
and  white-washed  specimens  of  slavery,  are  tit- 
tering at  their  gullibility,  they  return  in  the  spring 
on  the  same  fool's-errand  with  their  predecessors, 
retailing  their  lesson,  and  mouthing  the  praises 
of  the  masters,  and  the  comforts  of  the  slaves. 
They  now  become  village  umpire's  in  all  disputes 
about  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  and  each  thence 
forward  ends  all  controversies  with  his  oracular, 
"  I've  seen,  and  sure  I  ought  to  know." 

But  all  northern  visitors  at  the  south  are  not 
thus  easily  gulled.  Many  of  them,  as  the  pre- 
ceding pages  show,  have  too  much  sense  to  be 
caught  with  chaff. 

Wc  may  add  here,  that  those  classes  of  visitors 
v/bose  representations  of  the  treatment  of  slaves 
are  most  influential  in  moulding  the  opinions  of 
the  free  states,  are  ministers  of  the  gospel,  agents 
of  benevolent  societies,  and  teachers  who  have 
traveled  and  temporarily  resided  in  the  slave 
states— classes  of  persons  less  likely  than  any 
others  to  witness  cruelties,  because  slaveholders 
generally  take  more  pains  to  keep  such  visitors 
in  ignorance  than  others,  because  their  vocations 
would  furnish  them  fewer  opportunities  for  wit- 
nessing them,  and  because  they  come  in  contact 
with  a  class  of  society  in  which  fewer  atrocities 
are  committed  than  in  any  other,  and  that  too, 
under  circumstances  which  make  it  almost  im- 
possible for  them  to  witness  those  which  arc 
actually  committed. 

Of  the  numerous  classes  of  persons  from  the 
north  who  temporarily  reside  in  the  slave  states 
the  mechanics  who  find  employment  on  the  plan, 
tations,  are  the  only  persons  who  are  in  circura 
stances  to  look  "  behind  the  scenes."  Merchants, 
pedlars,  venders  of  patents,  drovers,  speculators, 
and  almost  all  descriptions  of  persons  who  go 
from  tlie  free  states  to  the  south  to  make  money, 
see  little  of  slavery,  except  upon  the  road,  at  pub- 
lie  inns,  and  in  villages  and  cities. 

Let  not  the  reader  infer  from  what  has  been 
said,  that  the  ^arZor-slaves,  chamber-maids,  &c. 
in  the  slave  states  are  not  treated  with  cruelty — 
far  from  it.  They  often  experience  terrible  in. 
flictions ;  not  generally  so  teiTible  or  so  frequent 
as  the  field-hands,  and  very  rarely  in  the  presence 
of  guests.*  House-slaves  arc  for  tlie  most  part 
treated    far   better   than    plantation-slaves,    and 

*  Rev.  Joseph  M.  Sadd,  a  Presbyterian  clerpyman,  in 
Castile,  Genesee  county,  N.  Y.  recently  from  Missouri, 
wliere  he  has  preached  five  years,  in  the  midst  of  slave- 
holders, says,  in  a  letter  just  received,  speaking  of  the 
pains  taiten  by  slaveholders  to  conceal  from  tlie  eyes  of 
strangers  and  visitors,  the  cruelties  which  they  inflict  upon 
tlicir  slaves — 

"  It  is  diflicult'to  be  nn  eye-witness  of  these  things ;  the 
master  and  mistress  almost  invariably  iiuiiisli  their  slaves, 
only  in  the  preselice  of  other  slaves,  or  before  other  me»>i- 
,  bers  of  tlieir  own  family,  and  often  at  the  dead  of  night." 


Objections  Considered — Northern  Visitors. 


131 


those  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  mas- 
ter and  mistress,  than  those  under  overseers  and 
drivers.  It  is  quite  worthy  of  remark,  that  of 
the  thousands  of  northern  men  who  have  visited 
the  south,  and  are  always  lauding  the  kindness 
of  slaveholders  and  the  comfort  of  the  slaves, 
protesting  that  they  have  never  seen  cruelties 
inflicted  on  them,  &c.  each  perhaps,  without 
exception,  has  some  story  to  tell  which  reveals, 
better  perhaps  than  the  most  barbarous  butchery 
could  do,  a  public  sentiment  toward  slaves, 
showing  that  the  most  cruel  inflictions  must  of 
necessity  be  the  constant  portion  of  the  slaves. 

Though  facts  of  this  kind  lie  thick  in  every 
corner,  the  reader  will,  we  are  sure,  tolerate  even 
a  needless  illustration,  if  told  that  it  is  from  the 
pen  of  N.  P.  Rogers,  Esq.  of  Concord,  N.  H. 
who,  whatever  he  writes,  though  it  be,  as  in  this 
case,  a  mere  hasty  letter,  always  finds  readers  to 
the  end. 

"  At  a  court  session  at  Guilford,  Stafford  county, 
N.  H.  in  August,  1837,  the  Hon.  Daniel  M.  Du- 
rell,  of  Dover,  formerly  Chief  Justice  of  the  Com. 
mon  Pleas  for  ;hat  state,  and  a  member  of  Con- 
gress, was  charging  the  abolitionists,  in  presence 
of  several  gentlemen  of  tlie  bar,  at  their  boarding 
house,  with  exaggerations  and  misrepresentations 
of  slave  treatment  at  the  south.  '  One  instance 
in  particular,'  he  witnessed,  he  said,  where  he 
'  knew  they  misrepresented.  It  was  in  the  Con- 
gregational meeting  house  at  Dover.  He  was 
passing  by,  and  saw  a  crowd  entering  and  about 
the  door;  andon  inquiry,  found  that  abolition  was 
goino-  on  in  there.  He  stood  in  the  entry  for  a 
moment,  and  found  the  Englishman,  Thompson, 
was  holding  forth.  The  fellow  was  speaking  of 
the  treatment  of  slaves ;  and  he  said  it  was  no 
uncommon  thing  for  masters,  when  exasperated 
with  the  slave,  to  hang  him  up  by  the  two  thumbs, 
and  flog  him.  I  knew  the  fellow  lied  there,'  said 
the  judge,  '  for  I  had  traveled  through  the  south, 
from  Georgia  north,  and  I  never  saw  a  single 
instance  of  the  kind.  The  fellow  said  it  was  a 
common  thing.'  '  Did  you  see  any  exasperated 
masters,  Judge,'  said  I,  '  in  your  journey  ?'  '  No 
sir,'  said  he,  '  not  an  individual  instance.'  '  You 
hardly  are  able  to  convict  Mr.  Thompson  of 
falsehood,  then.  Judge,'  said  I,  '  if  I  understood 
you  right.  He  spoke,  as  I  understood  you,  of 
exasperated  masters — and  you  say  you  did  not 
see  any.  Mr.  Thompson  did  not  say  it  was  com- 
mon for  masters  in  good  humor  to  hang  up  their 
slaves.'  The  Judge  did  not  perceive  the  materi- 
ality of  the  distinction.  '  Oh,  they  misrepresent 
and  lie  about  this  treatment  of  the  niggers,'  he 
continued.  '  In  going  through  all  the  states  I 
visited,  I  do  not  now  remember  a  single  instance 
of  cruel  treatment.  Indeed,  I  remember  of  see- 
ing  but  one  nigger  struck,  during  my  whole  jour- 
ney. There  was  one  instance.  We  were  riding 
in  the  stage,  pretty  early  one  morning,  and  we 
met  a  black  fellow,  driving  a  span  of  horses,  and 
a  load  (I  think  he  said)  of  hay.  The  fellow 
turned  out  before  we  got  to  him,  clean  down 
into  the  ditch,  as  far  as  he  could  get.  He  knew, 
you  see,  what  to  depend  on,  if  he  did  not  give  the 


road.  Our  driver,  as  we  passed  the  fellow, 
fetched  him  a  smart  crack  with  his  whip  across 
the  chops.  He  did  not  make  any  noise,  though 
I  guess  it  hurt  him  some — he  grinned. — Oh,  no! 
these  fellows  exaggerate.  The  niggers,  as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  are  kindly  treated.  Tliere  may  be  ex- 
ceptions, but  I  saw  nothing  of  it.'  (By  the  way, 
the  Judge  did  net  know  there  were  any  abolition- 
ists present.)  '  What  did  you  do  to  the  driver, 
Judge,'  said  I,  '  for  striking  that  man  ?'  '  Do  !' 
said  he,  '  I  did  nothing  to  him,  to  be  sure.'  '  What 
did  you  say  to  him,  sir  ?'  said  I.  '  Nothing,'  he 
replied  :  '  I  said  nothing  to  him.'  'What  did  the 
other  passengers  do  ?'  said  I.  '  Nothing,  sir,' 
said  the  Judge.  'The  fellow  turned  out  the 
white  of  his  eye,  but  he  did  not  make  any  noise.' 
'  Did  the  driver  say  any  thing.  Judge,  when  he 
struck  the  man?'  'Nothing,'  said  the  Judge, 
'only  he  damned  him,  and  told  him  he'd  learn 
him  to  keep  out  of  the  reach  of  his  whip  '  '  Sir,' 
said  I,  '  if  George  Thompson  had  told  this  story, 
in  the  warmth  of  an  anti-slavery  speech,  I  should 
scarcely  have  credited  it.  I  have  attended  many 
anti-slavery  meetings,  and  I  never  heard  an  in. 
stance  of  such  cold-blooded,  wanton,  insolent, 
DIABOLICAL  cruelty  as  this  ;  and,  sir,  if  I  live  to 
attend  another  meeting,  I  shall  relate  this,  and 
give  Judge  Durell's  name  as  the  witness  of  it.' 
An  infliction  of  the  most  insolent  character,  en- 
tirely unprovoked,  on  a  perfect  stranger,  who  had 
showed  the  utmost  civilitv,  in  giving  all  the  road, 
and  only  could  not  get  beyond  the  long  reach  of 
the  driver's  whip — and  he  a  stage  driver,  a  class 
generous  next  to  the  sailor,  in  the  sober  hour  of 
morning — and  borne  in  silence — and  told  to  show 
that  the  colored  man  of  the  south  was  kindly  treat 
ed — all  evincing,  to  an  unutterable  extent,  that 
the  temper  of  the  south  toward  the  slave  is  mer- 
ciless, even  to  diabolism — and  that  the  north 
regards  him  with,  if  possible,  a  more  fiendish  in- 
difference still '." 

It  seems  but  an  act  of  simple  justice  to  say,  in 
conclusion,  that  many  of  the  slaveholders  from 
whom  our  northern  visitors  derive  their  informa- 
tion of  the  "  good  treatment"  of  the  slave,  may 
not  design  to  deceive  them.  Such  visitors  are 
often,  perhaps,  generally  brought  in  contact  with 
the  better  class  of  slaveholders,  whose  slaves  are 
really  better  fed,  clothed,  lodged,  and  housed  ; 
more  moderately  worked  ;  more  seldom  whipped, 
and  with  less  severity,  than  the  slaves  generally. 
Those  masters  in  speaking  of  the  good  condition 
of  their  slaves,  and  asserting  that  they  are  treated 
well,  use  terms  that  are  not  absolute  but  compara- 
tive :  and  it  may  be,  and  doubtless  often  is  true 
that  their  slaves  are  treated  well  as  slaiyes,  in  com. 
parison  with  the  treatment  received  by  slaves 
generally.  So  the  overseers  of  such  slaves,  and  the 
slaves  themselves,  may,  without  lying  or  designing 
to  mislead,  honestly  give  the  same  testimony.  As 
the  great  body  of  slaves  within  their  knowledge 
fare  worse,  it  is  not  strange  that,  when  speaking 
of  the  treatment  on  their  own  plantation,  thev 
should  call  it  good. 


132 


Oljections  Considered — Interest  of  Masters. 


Objection  V.—'  IT  IS  FOR  THE  INTEREST  OF  THE  MASTERS  TO  TREAT  THEIR 

SLAVES  WELL.' 


So  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  drunkard  to  quit 
his  cups ;  for  the  glutton  to  curb  his  appetite  ;  for 
the  debauchee  to  bridle  his  lust ;  for  the  sluggard 
to  be  up  betimes  ;  for  the  spendthrift  to  be  eco- 
nomieal,  and  for  all  sinners  to  stop  sinning.  Even 
if  it  were  for  the  interest  of  masters  to  treat  their 
slaves  well,  he  must  be  a  novice  who  thinks  that 
a  proof  tliat  the  slaves  are  well  treated.  The 
whole  history  of  man  is  a  record  of  real  interests 
sacrificed  to  present  gratification.  If  all  men's 
actions  were  consistent  with  their  best  interests,- 
folly  and  sin  would  be  words  without  meaning. 

If  the  objector  means  that  it  is  for  the  pecu- 
niary interests  of  masters  to  treat  their  slaves 
well,  and  thence  infers  their  good  treatment,  we 
reply,  that  though  the  love  of  money  is  strong,  yet 
appetite  and  lust,  pride,  anger  and  revenge,  the 
love  of  power  and  honor,  are  each  an  overmatch 
for  it ;  and  when  either  of  them  is  roused  by  a 
sudden  stimulant,  the  love  of  money  is  worsted  in 
the  grapple  with  it.  Look  at  the  hourly  lavish 
outlays  of  money  to  procure  a  momentary  gratifi- 
cation for  those  passions  and  appetites.  As  the  de- 
sire for  money  is,  in  the  main,  merely  a  desire  for 
the  means  of  gratifying  other  desires,  or  rather 
for  one  of  the  means,  it  must  be  the  servant  not 
the  sovereign  of  those  desires,  to  whose  gratifica- 
tion its  only  use  is  to  minister.  But  even  if  the 
love  of  money  were  the  strongest  human  passion, 
who  is  simple  enough  to  believe  that  it  is  all  the 
time  so  powerfully  excited,  that  no  other  passion 
or  appetite  can  get  the  mastery  over  it  ?  Who 
does  not  know  that  gusts  of  rage,  revenge,  jea- 
lousy and  lust  drive  it  before  them  as  a  tempest 
tosses  a  feather  ? 

The  objector  has  forgotten  his  first  lessons;  they 
taught  him  that  it  is  human  nature  to  gratify  the 
uppermost  passion :  and  is  prudence  the  upper- 
most passion  with  slaveholders,  and  self-restraint 
their  great  characteristic  ?  The  strongest  feeling 
of  any  moment  is  the  sovereign  of  that  moment, 
and  rules.  Is  a  propensity  to  practice  ecoiwmy 
the  predominant  feeling  with  slaveholders  ?  Ri- 
diculous !  Every  northerner  knows  that  slave- 
holders are  proverbial  for  lavish  expenditures, 
never  higgling  about  the  price  of  a  gratification. 
Human  passions  have  not,  like  the  tides,  regular 
ebbs  and  flows,  with  their  stationary,  high  and 
low  water  marks.  They  are  a  dominion  convulsed 
with  revolutions ;  coronations  and  dethronements 
in  ceaseless  succession — each  ruler  a  usurper  and 
a  despot.  Love  of  money  gets  a  snatch  at  the 
sceptre  as  well  as  the  rest,  not  by  hereditary  right, 
but  because,  in  the  fluctuations  of  human  feel- 
ings, a  chance  wave  washes  him  up  to  the  tlirone, 
and  the   next  perhaps  washes  him    off,  without 


time  to  nominate  his  successor.  Since,  then,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  a  host  of  appetites  and  passions  do 
hourly  get  the  better  of  love  of  money,  what  pro- 
tection  does  the  slave  find  in  his  master's  interest, 
against  the  sweep  of  his  passions  and  appetites  ? 
Besides,  a  master  can  inflict  upon  his  slave  hor- 
rible cruelties  without  perceptibly  injuring  his 
health,  or  taking  time  from  his  labor,  or  lessening 
his  value  as  property.  Blows  with  a  small  stick 
give  more  acute  pain,  than  with  a  large  one.  A 
club  bruises,  and  benumbs  the  nerves,  while  a 
switch,  neither  breaking  nor  bruising  the  flesh,  in- 
stead of  blunting  the  sense  of  feeling,  wakes  up 
and  stings  to  torture  all  the  susceptibilities  of  pain 
By  this  kind  of  infliction,  more  actual  cruelty  can 
be  perpetrated  in  the  giving  of  pain  at  the  instant, 
than  by  the  most  horrible  bruisings  and  lacerations; 
and  that,  too,  with  little  comparative  hazard  to 
the  slave's  health,  or  to  his  value  as  property,  and 
without  loss  of  time  from  labor.  Even  giving  to 
the  objection  all  the  force  claimed  for  it,  what 
protection  is  it  to  the  slave?  It  professes  to 
shield  the  slave  from  such  treatment  alone,  as 
would  either  lay  him  aside  from  labor,  or  injure 
his  health,  and  thus  lessen  his  value  as  a  working 
animal,  making  him  a  damaged  article  in  the 
market.  Now,  is  nothing  had  treatment  of  a  hu. 
man  being  except  that  which  produces  these  ef- 
fects ?  Does  the  fact  that  a  man's  constitution  is 
not  actually  shattered,  and  his  life  shortened  by 
his  treatment,  prove  that  he  is  treated  well  ?  I9 
no  treatment  cruel  except  what  sprains  muscles, 
or  cuts  sinews,  or  bursts  blood  vessels,  or  breaks 
bones,  and  thus  lessens  a  man's  value  as  a  work- 
ing animal  ? 

A  slave  may  get  blows  and  kicks  every  hour  in 
the  day,  without  having  his  constitution  broken, 
or  without  suffering  sensibly  in  his  health,  or  flesh, 
or  appetite,  or  power  to  labor.  Therefore,  beaten 
and  kicked  as  he  is,  he  must  be  treated  well,  ac- 
cording to  the  objector,  since  the  master's  inter, 
est  does  not  suffer  thereby. 

Finally,  the  objector  virtually  maintains  that  all 
possible  privations  and  inflictions  suffered  by 
slaves,  that  do  not  actually  cripple  their  power  to 
labor,  and  make  them  'damaged  merchandize,' 
are  to  be  set  down  as  '  good  treatment,'  and  that 
nothing  is  bad  treatment  except  what  produces 
these  effects. 

Thus  we  see  that  even  if  the  slave  were  effect- 
ually shielded  from  all  those  inflictions,  which,  by 
lessening  his  value  as  property,  would  injure  the 
interests  of  his  master,  he  would  still  have  no 
protection  against  numberless  and  terrible  cruel- 
tics.  But  we  go  further,  and  maintain  that  in  re- 
spect  to  large  classes  of  slaves,  it  is  for  the   in. 


Ohjections  Considered — Interest  of  Masters. 


138 


lerest  of  their  masters  to  treat  them  with  barbarous 
inhumanity. 

1.  Old  slaves.  It  would  be  for  the  interest  of 
the  masters  to  shorten  their  days. 

2.  Worn  out  slaves.  Multitudesof  slaves  by  bc- 
mg  overworked,  have  their  constitutions  broken  in 
middle  life.  It  would  be  economical  for  masters 
to  starve  or  flog  such  to  death. 

3.  The  incurably  diseased  and  maimed.  In  all 
such  cases  it  would  be  cheaper  for  masters  to  buy 
poison  than  medicine. 

4.  The  blind,  lunatics,  and  idiots.  As  all  such 
would  be  a  tax  on  him,  it  would  be  for  his  interest 
to  shorten  their  days. 

5.  The  deaf  and  dumb,  and  persons  gi'eatly  de- 
formed. Such  might  or  might  not  be  serviceable 
to  him  ;  many  of  them  at  least  would  be  a  burden, 
and  few  men  carry  burdens  when  they  can  throw 
them  off. 

6.  Feeble  infants.  As  such  would  require  much 
nursing,  the  time,  trouble  and  expense  necessary 
to  raise  them,  would  generally  be  more  than  they 
would  be  worth  as  working  animals.  How  many 
euch  infants  would  be  likely  to  be  '  raised,'  from 
disinterested  benevolence  ?  To  this  it  may  be 
added  that  in  the  far  south  and  south  west,  it  is 
notoriously  for  the  interest  of  the  master  not  to 
'  raise'  slaves  at  all.  To  buy  slaves  when  nearly 
grown,  from  the  northern  slave  states,  would  be 
cheaper  than  to  raise  them.  This  is  shown  in  the 
fact,  that  mothers  with  infants  sell  for  less  in  those 
states  than  those  without  them.  And  when  slave, 
traders  purchase  such  in  the  upper  country,  it  is 
notorious  that  they  not  unfrequently  either  sell 
their  infants,  or  give  them  away.  Therefore  it 
would  be  for  the  interest  of  the  masters,  through, 
out  that  region,  to  have  all  the  new-born  chil- 
dren left  to  perish.  It  would  also  be  for  his 
mterest  to  make  such  arrangements  as  effectually 
to  separate  the  sexes,  or  if  that  were  not  done,  so 
to  overwork  the  females  as  to  prevent  childbearing. 

7.  Incorrigible  slaves.  On  most  of  the  large 
plantations,  there  are,  more  or  less,  incorrigible 
slaves, — that  is,  slaves  who  will  not  be  profitable 
to  their  masters — and  from  whom  torture  can  ex- 
tort little  but  defiance.*  These  are  frequently 
slaves  of  uncommon  minds,  who  feel  so  keenly 
the  wrongs  of  slavery  that  their  proud  spirits 
spurn  their  chains  and  defy  their  tormentors. 

They  have  commonly  great  sway  over  the 
other  slaves,  their  example  is  contagious,  and  their 
influence  subversive  of  'plantation  discipline.' 
Consequently  they  must  be  made  a  warning  to 

*  Advertisements  like  tlie  following  are  not  unfrequent  in 
Uie  southern  papers. 

Prom  the  Elizabeth  (JV.  C.j  Pheniz,  Jan.  5,  1839. 

"The  subscriber  offers  for  sale  his  blacksmith  Nat,  28 
years  of  age,  and  remarkably  large  and  likely.  The  only 
cause  of  my  selling  him  is  I  cannot  control  him. 

Hertford,  Dec.  5, 1838.  J.  Gordon." 


others.  It  is  for  the  interest  of  the  masters  (at 
least  they  believe  it  to  be)  to  put  upon  such  slaves 
iron  collars  and  chains,  to  brand  and  crop  them  ; 
to  disfigure,  lacerate,  starve  and  torture  them — in 
a  word,  to  inflict  upon  them  such  vengeance  as 
shall  strike  terror  into  the  other  slaves.  To  this 
class  may  be  added  the  incorrigibly  thievish  and 
indolent;  it  would  be  for  the  interest  oi  the  mas. 
ters  to  treat  them  with  such  severity  as  would  de- 
ter otliers  from  following  their  example. 

7.  Runaways.  When  a  slave  has  once  runaway 
from  his  master  and  is  caught,  he  is  thencefor- 
ward treated  with  severity.  It  is  for  the  interest 
of  the  master  to  make  an  example  of  him,  by  the 
greatest  privations  and  inflictions. 

8.  Hired  slaves.  It  is  for  the  interest  of  those 
who  hire  slaves  to  get  as  much  out  of  them  as 
they  can ;  the  temptation  to  overwork  them  ie 
powerful.  If  it  be  said  that  the  master  could,  in 
that  case,  recover  damages,  the  answer  is,  that 
damages  would  not  be  recoverable  in  law  unless 
actual  injury — enough  to  impair  the  power  of 
the  slave  to  labor  be  proved.  And  this  ordi- 
narily would  be  impossible,  unless  the  slave  has 
been  worked  so  greatly  beyond  his  strength  as 
to  produce  some  fatal  derangement  of  the  vital 
functions.  Indeed,  as  all  who  are  familiar  with 
such  cases  ia  southern  courts  well  know,  the  proof 
of  actual  injury  to  the  slave,  so  as  to  lessen  his 
value,  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  make  out,  and 
every  hirer  of  slaves  can  overwork  them,  give 
them  insufficient  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  and 
inflict  upon  them  nameless  cruelties  with  entire 
impunity.  We  repeat  then  that  it  is  for  the  inter, 
est  of  the  hirer  to  push  his  slaves  to  their  utmost 
strength,  provided  he  does  not  drive  them  to  such 
an  extreme,  that  their  constitutions  actually  give 
way  under  it,  while  in  his  hands.  The  supreme 
court  of  Maryland  has  decided  that,  '  There  must 
be  at  least  a  diminution  of  the  faculty  of  the  slave 
for  bodily  labor  to  warrant  an  action  by  the  mas- 
ter.'— 1  Harris  and  Johnson^s  Reports,  4. 

9.  Slaves  under  overseers  whose  wages  are  pro- 
portioned to  the  crop  which  they  raise.  This  is  an 
arrangement  common  in  the  slave  states,  and  in  its 
practical  operation  is  equivalent  to  a  bounty  on 
hard  driving — a  virtual  premium  offered  to  over- 
seers to  keep  the  slaves  whipped  up  to  the  top  of 
their  strength.  Even  where  the  overseer  has  a 
fixed  salary,  irrespective  of  the  value  of  the  crop 
which  he  takes  off,  he  is  strongly  tempted  to  over- 
work the  slaves,  as  those  overseers  get  the  highest 
wages  who  can  draw  the  largest  income  from  a 
plantation  with  a  given  number  of  slaves  ;  bo  that 
we  may  include  in  this  last  class  of  slaves,  the 
majority  of  all  those  who  are  under  overseers, 
whatever  the  terms  on  which  those  overseers  are 
employed. 

Another  class  of  slaves  may  be  mentioned ;  we 


184 


Ohjectimis  Considered — Interest  of  Masters. 


refer  to  the  slaves  of  masters  who  bet  upon  their 
crops.  In  the  cotton  and  sugar  region  there  is  a 
fearful  amount  of  this  desperate  gambling,  in 
which,  though  money  is  the  ostensible  stake  and 
forfeit,  human  life  is  the  real  one.  The  length 
to  which  this  rivalry  is  carried  at  the  south  and 
south  west,  the  multitude  of  planters  who  en- 
gage in  it,  and  the  recklessness  of  human  life 
exhibited  in  driving  the  murderous  game  to  its 
issue,  cannot  well  be  imagined  by  one  who  has 
not  lived  in  the  midst  of  it.  Desire  of  gain  is 
only  one  of  the  motives  that  stimulates  them  ; — 
the  eclat  of  having  made  the  largest  crop  with  a 
given  number  of  hands,  is  also  a  powerful  stimu- 
lant ;  the  southern  newspapers,  at  the  crop  sea- 
son, chronicle  carefully  the  "  cotton  brag,"  and 
the  "  crack  cotton  picking,"  and  "  unparalleled 
driving,"  &c.  Even  the  editor  of  professedly 
religious  papers,  cheer  <m  the  melee  and  sing 
the  triumphs  of  the  victor.  Among  these  we 
recollect  the  celebrated  Rev.  J.  N.  Maffit,  recent- 
ly editor  of  a  rcligous  paper  at  Natchez,  Miss,  in 
■which  he  took  care  to  assign  a  prominent  place, 
and  capitals  to  ''  the  cottox  brag."  The  testimo- 
ny of  Mr.  Bliss,  page  38,  details  some  of  the 
particulars  of  this  letting  upon  crops.  All  the 
preceding  classes  of  slaves  are  in  circumstances 
V.  hichmakc  it  "  for  the  in^eresi  of  their  masters," 
w  those  who  have  the  management  of  them,  to 
treat  them  cruelly. 

Besides  the  operation  of  the  causes  already 
specified,  which  make  it  for  the  interest  of  mas. 
ters  and  overseers  to  treat  cruelly  certain  classes  of 
their  slaves,  a  variety  of  others  exist,  which 
make  it  for  their  interest  to  treat  cruelly  the 
great  body  of  their  slaves.  These  causes  are, 
the  nature  of  certain  kinds  of  products,  the  kind 
of  labor  required  in  cultivating  and  preparing 
them  for  market,  the  best  times  for  such  labor, 
the  state  of  the  market,  fluctuations  in  prices, 
facilities  for  transportation,  the  weather,  seasons, 
&c.  &c.  Some  of  the  causes  which  operate  to 
produce    this  are — 

1.  The  early  market.  If  the  planter  can  get 
his  crop  into  market  early,  he  may  save  thousands 
which  might  bo  lost  if  it  arrived  later. 

9.  Changes  in  the  viarket.  A  sudden  rise  in 
the  market  with  the  probability  that  it  will  bo 
short,  or  a  gradual  fall  with  a  probability  that  it 
will  be  long,  is  a  strong  temptation  to  the  mas- 
ter to  push  his  slaves  to  the  utmost,  that  he  may 
in  the  one  case  make  all  he  can,  by  taking  the 
tide  at  the  flood,  and  in  the  other  lose  as  little  as 
may  be,  by  taking  it  as  early  as  possible  in  the 
ebb. 

3.  High  prices.  Whenever  the  slave  grown 
staples  bring  a  high  price,  as  is  now  the 
case  with  cotton,  every  slaveholder  is  tempted  to 
overwork   his  slaves.      By  forcing    them    to    do 


double  work  for  a  few  weeks  or  months,  while 
the  price  is  up,  he  can  afford  to  lose  a  number  off 
them  and  to  lessen  the  value  of  all  by  over- 
driving. A  cotton  planter  with  a  hundred  vigor- 
ous slaves,  would  have  made  a  profitable  specu- 
lation, if,  during  the  years  '34,  5,  and  6,  when 
the  average  price  of  cotton  was  17  <;entsa  pound, 
he  had  so  overworked  his  slaves  that  half  of 
them  died  upon  his  hands  in  '37,  when  cotton  had 
fallen  to  six  and  eight  cents.  No  wonder  that 
the  poor  slaves  pray  that  cotton  and  sugar  may 
be  cheap.  The  writer  has  frequently  heard  it 
declared  by  planters  in  the  lower  country,  that, 
it  is  more  profitable  to  drive  the  slaves  to  such 
over  exertion  as  to  use  them  up,  in  seven  or  eight 
years,  than  to  give  them  only  ordinary  tasks  and 
protract  their  lives  to  the  ordinary  period.* 

4.  Untimely  seasons.  When  the  winter  en 
croaches  on  the  spring,  and  makes  late  seed  time, 
the  first  favorable  weather  is  a  temptation  to 
overwork  the  slaves,  too  strong  to  be  resisted  by 
those  who  hold  men  as  mere  working  animals. 
So  when  frosts  set  in  early,  and  a  great  amount  ot 
work  is  to  be  done  in  a  little  time,  or  great  loss 
suffered.  So  also  after  a  long  storm  either  in 
seed  or  crop  time,  when  the  weather  becomes 
favorable,  the  same  temptation  presses,  and  in 
all  these  cases  the  master  would  save  money  by 
overdriving  his  slaves. 

5.  Periodical  pressure  of  certain  hinds  of  labor. 
Tlie  manufacture  of  sugar  is  an  illustration. 

In  a  work  entitled  "  Travels  in  Louisiana  in 
1802,"  translated  from  the  French,  b}'  John 
Davis,  is  the  following  testimony  under  this 
head  : — 

"  At  the  rolling  of  sugars,  an  interval  of  from 
two  to  three  months,  they  (the  slaves  in  Louisi- 
ana,) work  both  night  and  day.  Abridged  of 
their  sleep,  they  scarcely  retire  to  rest  during  the 
whole  period."      See  page  81. 

In  an  article  on  the  agriculture  of  Louisiana, 
published  in  the  second  number  of  the  "  Western 
Review,"  is  the  following  : — "  The  work  is  ad- 
mitted to  be  severe  for  the  hands,  (slaves)  requir- 
ing, when  the  process  of  making  sugar  is  com 
menced,  to  be  pressed  night  and  day." 

It  would  be  for  the  interest  of  the  sugar  planter 
greatly  to  overwork  his  slaves,  during  the  annual 
process  of  sugar-making. 

The  severity  of  this  periodical  pressure,  in 
preparing  for  market  other  staples  of  the  slave 
states  besides  sugar,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
following.  Mr.  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina, 
in  his  speech  in  Congress,  Feb.  I.  1836,  (See 
National  Intelligencer)  said,  "  In  the  heat  of  tho 
crop,  the  loss  of  one  or  two  days,  would  inevit 
ably  ruin  it." 

6.  Times  of  scarcity.  Drought,  long  rain, 
frost,  &c.  arc  liable  to  cut  off  the  corn  crop,  upon 

*  The  reader  is  referred  to  a  variety  of  facts  and  testimo 
ny  on  tliis  point  on  the  39lh  page  of  this  work. 


Objections  Considered — Interest  of  Masters. 


135 


which  the  slaves  are  fed.  If  this  happens  when 
the  staple  which  they  raise  is  at  a  low  price,  it  is 
for  the  interest  of  the  master  to  put  the  slave  on 
short  rations,  thus  forcing  him  to  suffer  from 
hunger. 

7.  The  raising  of  crops  for  exportation.  In  all 
those  states  where  cotton  and  sugar  are  raised 
for  exportation,  it  is,  for  the  most  part,  more 
profitable  to  bu}'  provisions  for  the  slaves  than  to 
raise  them.  Where  this  is  the  case  the  slave- 
holders believe  it  to  be  for  their  interest  to  give 
their  slaves  less  food,  than  their  hunger  craves, 
and  they  do  generally  give  them  insufficient  sus- 
tenance.* 

Now  let  us  make  some  estimate  of  the  propor- 
tion which  the  slaves,  included  in  the  foregoing 
nine  classes,  sustain  to  the  whole  number,  and 
then  of  the  proportion  affected  by  the  operation 
of  the  seven  causes  just  enumerated. 

It  would  be  nearly  impossible  to  form  an  esti- 
mate of  the  proportion  of  the  slaves  included  in  a 
number  of  these  classes,  such  as  the  old,  the  worn 
out,  the  incurably  diseased,  maimed  and  deform- 
ed, idiots,  feeble  infants,  incorrigible  slaves,  &c. 
More  or  less  of  this  description  are  to  be  found 
on  all  the  considerable  plantations,  and  often, 
many,  on  the  same  plantation ;  though  we  have 
no  accurate  data  for  an  estimate,  the  proportion 
cannot   be  less  than  one  in  twenty-five  of  the 

*  Hear  the  testimony  of  a  slaveholder,  on  this  subject,  a 
member  of  Congress  from  Virginia,  from  1817  to  1330, 
Hon.  Alexander  Smyth. 

In  the  debate  on  tlie  Missouri  question  in  the  U.  S. 
Congress,  1819-20,  tlie  admission  of  Missouri  to  the  Union,  as 
a  slave  state,  was  urged,  among  other  grounds,  as  a  measure 
of  humanity  to  the  slaves  of  the  south.  Mr.  Smyth,  of  Vii-- 
giniasaid,  "  The  plan  of  our  opponents  seems  to  be  to  confine 
the  slave  population  to  the  southern  elates,  to  the  countries 
whae  sugar,  cotton,  and  tobacco  are  cultivated.  But,  sir, 
by  confming  the  slaves  to  a  part  of  the  country  wliere 
crops  are  raised  for  exportation,  and  the  bread  and  meat  are 
purchased,  you  doom  them  to  scarcity  and  hunger.  Is  it 
not  obvious  that  the  way  to  render  their  situation  more 
comfortable,  is  to  allow  them  to  be  taken  where  there  is 
not  the  same  motive  to  force  the  slave  to  incessant  toil, 
that  there  is  in  the  country  where  cotton,  sugar,  and  tobac- 
co, are  raisid  for  exportation.  It  is  proposed  to  hem  in  the 
blacks  where  they  are  hard  worked  and  ill  fed,  that 
they  maybe  rendered  unproductive  and  the  race  be  pre- 
vented from  increasing.  .  .  .  The  proposed  measure 
would  be  EXTREME  CRUELTY  to  the  blacks.  .  .  .  You 
would  .  .  .  doom  them  to  scarcity  and  hard 
LABOR."— [Speech  of  Mr.  Smyth,  Jan.  23,  1820.]— See 
National  Intelligencer. 

Tliose  states  where  the  crops  are  raised  for  exportation, 
and  a  large  part  of  the  provisions  purchased,  are,  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Western  Temirssec, 
Georgia,  Florida,  and,  to  a  considerable  extent.  South  Caro- 
lina. That  this  is  the  case  in  Louisiana,  is  shown  by  the 
following.  "  Corn,  flour,  and  bread  stuffs,  generally  are  ob- 
tained from  Kentucky,  Ohio,"  Stc.  See  "  Emigrant's  Guide 
through  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,"  Page  275.  That  it  is 
the  case  with  Alabama,  appears  from  the  testimony  of  W. 
Jefferson  Junes,  Esq.  a  lawyer  of  high  standing  in  Mobile. 
In  a  series  of  articles  published  by  him  in  the  Mobile  Morn- 
ing Chronicle,  he  says  ;  (See  that  paper  for  Aug.  26,  1837.) 

"  The  people  of  Alabama  export  what  they  raise,  and 
import  nearly  all  they  consume."  But  it  seems  quite  un- 
necessary to  prove,  what  all  persons  of  much  intelligence 
well  know,  that  the  states  mentioned  export  the  larger  part  of 
what  they  raise,  and  import  the  larger  part  of  what  they 
consume.  Now  more  tiian  one  million  of  slaves  arc  held 
in  those  states,  and  parts  of  states,  where  provisions  are 
mainly  imported,  and  consequently  they  are  "  doomed  to 
tcarcity  and  hunger." 


whole  number  of  slaves,  which  would  give  a  total 
of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand.  Of  some  of 
the  remaining  classes  we  have  data  for  a  pretty 
accurate  estimate. 

1st.  Lunatics. — Various  estimates  have  been 
made,  founded  upon  the  data  procured  by  actual 
investigation,  prosecuted  under  the  direction  of 
the  Legislatiu-es  of  different  States  ;  but  the  re- 
turns have  been  so  imperfect  and  erroneous,  that 
little  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  them.  The  Le- 
gislature of  New  Hampshire  recently  ordered  in- 
vestigations to  be  made  in  every  town  in  the  state, 
and  the  number  of  insane  persons  to  be  reported. 
A  committee  of  the  legislature,  who  had  the  sub- 
ject in  charge  say,  in  their  report — "  From  many 
towns  no  returns  have  been  received,  from  others 
the  accounts  are  erroneous,  there  being  cases 
known  to  the  committee  which  escaped  the  notice 
of  the  'selectmen.'  The  actual  number  of  in- 
sane persons  is  therefore  much  larger  than  appears 
by  the  documents  submitted  to  the  committee." 
The  Medical  Society  of  Connecticut  appointed  a 
committee  of  their  number,  composed  of  some  of 
the  most  eminent  physicians  in  the  state,  to  as- 
certain and  report  the  whole  number  of  insane 
persons  in  that  state.  The  committee  say,  in 
their  report,  "  The  number  of  towns  from  which 
returns  have  been  received  is  seventy,  and  the 
cases  of  insanity  which  have  been  noticed  in  them 
are  five  hundred  and  ten."  The  committee  add, 
"  fifty  more  towns  remain  to  be  heard  from,  and 
if  insanity  should  be  found  equally  prevalent  in 
them,  the  entire  number  will  scarcely  fall  short 
of  one  thousand  in  the  state."  This  investigation 
was  made  in  1821,  when  the  population  of  the 
state  was  less  than  two  hundred  and  eighty  thou 
sand.  If  the  estimate  of  the  Medical  Society  be 
correct,  the  proportion  of  the  insane  to  the  whole 
population  would  be  about  one  in  two  hundred 
and  eighty.  This  strikes  us  as  a  large  estimate, 
and  yet  a  committee  of  the  legislature  of  that 
state  in  1837,  reported  seven  hundred  and  seven 
insane  persons  in  the  state,  who  were  either  whol- 
ly or  in  part  supported  as  toicn  paupers,  or  by 
charity.  It  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  insane  in  Connecticut  be- 
long to  families  unable  to  support  thtni.  On  thi.s 
supposition,  the  whole  number  would  be  greater 
than  the  estimate  of  the  Medical  Society  sixteen 
years  previous,  when  the  population  was  perhaps 
thirty  thousand  less.  But  to  avoid  the  possibihty 
of  an  over  eslimate,  let  us  suppose  the  present 
number  of  insane  persons  in  Connecticut  to  be 
only  seven  himdred. 

The  population  of  the  state  is  now  probably 
about  three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand ;  ac- 
cording  to  this  estimate,  the  proportion  of  the  in- 
sane to  the  wliole  population,  would  be  one  to 
about  four  hundred  and  sixty.     Making  this  the 


136 


Objections  Considered—Interest  of  Masters. 


basis  of  our  calculation,  and  estimating  the  slaves  in 
the  United  States  at  two  millions,  seven  hundred 
thousand,  their  present  probable  number,  and  we 
come  to  this  result,  that  there  are  about  six  thou- 
eand  insane  persons  among  the  slavesof  the  United 
States.  We  have  no  adequate  data  by  which  to 
judge  whether  the  proportion  of  lunatics  among 
slaves  is  greater  or  less  than  among  the  whites  ; 
some  considerations  favor  the  supposition  that  it 
is.  But  tlie  dreadful  physical  violence  to  which 
the  slaves  are  subjected,  and  the  constant  sunder- 
ings  of  their  tenderest  ties,  might  lead  us  to  sup- 
pose that  it  would  be  more.  The  only  data  in  our 
possession  is  the  official  census  of  Chatham  coun- 
ty, Georgia,  for  1838,  containing  the  number  of 
lunatics  among  the  whites  and  the  slaves. — (See 
the  Savannah  Georgian,  July  24, 1838.)  Accord- 
ing to  this  census,  the  number  of  lunatics  among 
eight  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy  three 
whites  in  the  country,  is  only  two,  whereas,  the 
number  among  ten  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
ninety-one  slaves,  is  fourteen. 

2d.  The  Deaf  and  Dumb. — The  proportion  of 
deaf  and  dumb  persons  to  the  other  classes  of  the 
community,  is  about  one  in  two  thousand.  This 
is  the  testimony  of  the  directors  of  the  '  Ameri- 
can Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,'  located  at 
Hartford,  Connecticut.  Making  this  the  basis 
of  our  estimate,  there  would  be  one  thousand  six 
hundred  deaf  and  dumb  persons  among  the  slaves 
of  the  United  States. 

3d.  The  Blind. — We  have  before  us  the  last 
United  States  census,  from  which  it  appears,  that 
in  1830,  the  number  of  blind  persons  in  New 
Hampshire  was  one  hundred  and  seventeen,  out 
of  a  population  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-nine 
tliousand  five  hundred  and  thirty-three.  Adopt- 
ing this  as  our  basis,  the  number  of  blind  slaves  in 
the  United  States  would  be  nearly  one  thousand 
three  hundred. 

4th.  Runaways. — Of  the  proportion  of  the 
slaves  that  run  away,  to  those  that  do  not,  and 
of  the  proportion  of  the  runaways  that  are  taken 
to  those  that  escape  entirely,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  make  a  probable  estimate.  Something,  how- 
ever, can  be  done  towards  such  an  estimate.  We 
have  before  us,  in  the  Grand  Gulf  (Miss.)  Ad- 
vertiser, for  August  2,  ]  838,  a  list  of  runaways 
that  were  then  in  the  jails  of  the  two  counties  of 
Adams  and  Warren,  in  that  State ;  the  names, 
ages,  &c.  of  each  one  given ;  and  their  owners 
arc  called  upon  to  take  them  away.  The  num- 
ber of  runaways  thus  taken  up  and  committed  in 
these  two  counties,  is  forty-six.  The  wliolc 
number  of  counties  in  Mississippi  is  fifty-six. 
Many  of  them,  however,  are  thinly  populated. 
Now,  without  making  this  the  basis  of  our  esti- 
mate for  the  wliole  slave  population  in  all  the 
state — which   would    doubtless    make  the   num- 


ber much  too  large — we  are  sure  no  one  who  has 
any  knowledge  of  facts  as  they  are  in  the 
south,  will  charge  upon  us  an  over-statement, 
when  we  say,  that  of  the  present  generation  of 
slaves,  probably  owe  in  </i2V<?/ is  of  that  class — i.  e., 
has  at  some  time,  perhaps  often,  runaway  and 
been  retaken ;  on  that  supposition  the  whole 
number  would  be  not  far  from  ninety  thousand. 

5th.  Hired  Slaves. — It  is  impossible  to  csti. 
mate  with  accuracy  the  proportion  which  the  hired 
slaves  bear  to  the  whole  number.  That  it  is  very 
large  all  who  have  resided  at  the  south,  or  tra- 
velled there,  with  their  eyes  open  well  know. 
Some  of  the  largest  slaveholders  in  the  country, 
instead  of  purchasing  plantations  and  working 
their  slaves  themselves,  hire  them  out  to  others 
This  practice  is  very  common. 

Rev.  Horace  Moulton,  a  minister  of  the  Me- 
thodist  Episcopal  church  in  Marlborough,  Mass., 
who  lived  some  years  in  Georgia,  says :  "  A 
large  proportion  of  the  slaves  are  owned  by  mas 
ters  who  keep  them  on  purpose  to  hire  out." 

Large  numbers  of  slaves,  especially  in  Missis 
sippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Alabama,  and  Florida, 
are  owned  by  non-residents  ;  thousands  of  them  by 
northern  capitalists,  who  hire  them  out.  These 
capitalists  in  many  cases  own  large  plantations, 
which  are  often  leased  for  a  term  of  years  with  a 
'stock'  of  slaves  sufficient  to  work  them. 

Multitudes  of  slaves  'belonging  '  to  heirs,  are 
hired  out  by  their  guardians  till  such  heirs  become 
of  age,  or  by  the  executors  or  trustees  of  persons 
deceased. 

That  the  reader  may  form  some  idea  of  the 
large  number  of  slaves  that  are  hired  out,  we  in- 
sert below  a  few  advertisements,  as  a  specimen 
of  hundreds  in  the  newspapers  of  tlie  slave  states. 

From  the  "  Pensacola  Gazette,"  May  27. 
''  Notice  to  Slaveholders.     Wanted  upon  my 
contract,  on   the    Alabama,   Florida  and  Georgia 
Rail  Road,  FOUR   HUNDRED  BLACK  LA- 
BORERS, for  which  a  liberal  price  will  be  paid. 
R.  LORING,  Contractor." 

The  same  paper  has  the  following,  signed  by 
an  officer  of  the  United  States. 

"  Wanted  at  the  Navy  Yard,  Pensacola,  sixty 
LABORERS.  The  OWNERS  to  subsist  and  quarter 
them  beyond  the  limits  of  the  yard.  Persons 
having  Laborers  to  hire,  will  apply  to  the  Com- 
manding Officer.  W.  K.  LATLMER." 

From  the  "  Richmond  (Va.)  Enquirer,"  April 
10,  1838. 

"  Laborers  wanted. — The  James  River,  and 
Kenawha  Company,  are  in  immediate  want  of 
sevkral  hundred  good  laborers,.  Gentlemen 
wishing  to  send  negroes  from  the  country,  are 
assured  that  the  very  best  care  shall  be  taken  ol 
them.  RICHARD  REINS, 

Agent  of  the  James  River,  and  Kenawha  Co." 


Objections  Considered — Interest  of  Masters. 


137 


From  the  "  Vicksburg  (Mis.)  Register,"  Dec. 
27,  1838. 

"  60  Negroes,  males  and  females,  for  hire  for 
the  year  1839.     Apply  to        H.  HENDREN." 

From  the  "  Georgia  Messenger,"  Dec.  27, 
1838. 

"  Negroes  to  hire.  On  the  first  Tuesday  next. 
Including  CARPENTERS,  BLACKSMITHS, 
SHOEMAKERS,  SEAMSTRESSES,  COOKS, 
&c.  «fcc.     For  information  ;  Apply  to 

OSSIAN  GREGORY." 

From  the  "  Alexandria  (D.  C.)  Gazette,"  Dec. 

30,  1837. 

''  THE  subscriber  wishes  to  employ  by  the  month 
or  year,    one    hundred    able    bodied  men,  and 
THIRTY  BOYS.     Persons  having  servants,  will  do 
well  to  give  him  a  call.        PHILIP  ROACH, 
near  Alexandria." 

From  the  "  Columbia  (S.  C.)  Telescope,"  May 
19,  1838. 

"  Wanted  TO  HIRE,  twelve  or  fifteen  NEGRO 
GIRLS,  from  ten  to  fourteen  years  of  age.  They 
are  wanted  for  the  term  of  two  or  three  years. 
E.  H.  &  J.  FISHER." 

"Negroes  wanted.  The  Subscriber  is  desirous 
of  hiring  50  or  60  ^Vs^  rate  Negro  Men. 

WILSON  NESBITT." 

From  the  "  Norfolk  (Va.j  Beacon,"  March 
21,  1838. 

"  Laborers  wanted.  One  hundred  able  bodied 
men  are  wanted.     The  hands  will  be  required  to 
be  delivered  in  Halifax  by  the  owners.     Apply  to 
SHIELD  &  WALKE." 

From  the  "  Lynchburg  Virginian,"  Dec.  13, 
1838. 

"  40  negro  men.  The  subscribers  wish  to  hire 
for  the  next  year  40  NEGRO  MEN. 

LANGHORNE,  SCRUGGS  &  COOK." 

"  Hiring  of  negroes.  On  Saturday,  the  29th 
day  of  December,  1838,  at  Mrs.  Tayloe's  tavern, 
in  Amherst  county,  there  will  be  hired  thirty  or 
forty  valuable  Negroes. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  I  have  for  hire,  20 
men,  women,  boys,  and  girls — several  of  them 
excellent  house  servants. 

MAURICE  H.  garland." 

From  the  "  Savannah  Georgian,"  Feb.  5,  1838. 
"  Wanted  to  hire,  one  hundred  prime  negroes, 
by  the  year.  J.  V.  REDDEN." 

From  the   "  North   Carolina   Standard,"   Feb. 

31,  1838. 

"  Negroes  wanted.— W.  &  A.  STITH,  will 
give  twelve  dollars  per  month  for  FIFTY  strong 
Negro  fellows,  to  commence  work  immediately  ; 
and  for  FIFTY  more  on  the  first  day  of  Febua- 
ry,  and  for  FIFTY  on  the  first  day  of  March." 

From  the  "  Lexington  (Ky.)  Reporter,"  Dec. 
26,  1838. 

"  Will    be  hired,    for  one  year,  on  the  first 
day  of  January,  1839,  on  the  farm  of  the  late  Mrs. 
Meredith,    a  number  of  valuable  NEGROES. 
R.  S.  TODD,  Sheriff  of  Fayette  Co. 
And  Curator  for  James  and 
Elizabeth  Breckenridge." 


"  Negroes  to  hire.  On  Wednesday,  the  26th 
inst.  I  will  hire  to  the  highest  bidder,  the 
NEGROES  belonging  to  Charles  and  Robert 
Innes.  GEO.  W.  WILLIAMS. 

Guardian." 

The  following  nine  advertisements  were  pub- 
lished in  one  column  of  the  "  Winchester  Virgi- 
nian," Dec.  20,  1838. 

"  NEGRO  HIRINGS.' 
"  Will  be  offered    for  hire,  at  Captain  Long's 
Hotel,  a  number  of  SLAVES — men,  women, 
boys  and    girls — belonging    to  the  orplians   of 
George  Ash,  deceased. 

RICHARD  W.  BARTON." 
Guardian. 

"  Will  be  offered  for  hire,  at  my  Hotel,  a  num- 
ber of  SLAVES,  consisting  of  men,  women, 
boys  and  girls.  JOSEPH  LONG. 

Exr.  vf  Edmund  Shackleford,  dec'd." 

"Will  be  offered  for  hire,  for  the  ensuing  year, 
at  Capt.  Long's  Hotel,  a  number  of  SLAVES. 
MOSES  R.  RICHARDS." 

''  Will  be  offered  for  hire,  the  slaves  belonging 
to  the  estate  of  James  Bowen,  deceased,  consist- 
ing of  men,  and  women,  boys  and  girls. 

GILES  COOK. 
One  of  the  Exrs,  of  James  Bowen  dec'd." 

''  The  hiring  at  Millwood  will  take  place  on 
Friday,  the  28th  day  of  December,  1838. 

BURWELL." 

"  N.  B.  We  are  desired  to  say  that  other  valua- 
ble NEGROES  will  also  be  hired  at  Millwood 
on  the  same  day,  besides  those  offered  by  Mr.  B." 

"  The  SLAVES  of  the  late  John  JoUiffe,  about 
twenty   in    number,   and  of  all   ages  and  both 
sexes,  will  be  offered  for  hire  at  Cain's  Depot. 
DAVID  W.  BARTON. 
Administrator." 

"I  Will  hire  at  public  hiring  before  the  tavern 
door  of  Dr.  Lacy,  about  30  NEGROES,  consist- 
ing of  men,  and  women. 

JAMES  R.  RICHARDS." 

"  Will  be  hired,  at  Carter's  Tavern,  on  31st  of 
December,  a  number  of  NEGROES. 

JOHN  J.  H.  GUNNELL." 

"  Negroes  for  hire,  (privately.)  About  twelve 
servants,  consisting  of  men,  women,  boys,  and 
girls,  for  hire  privately.  Apply  to  the  subscriber 
at  Col.  Smith's  in  Battletown. 

JOHN  W.  OWEN." 

A  volume  might  easily  be  filled  with  advertise, 
ments  like  the  preceding,  showing  conclusively 
that  hired  slaves  must  be  a  large  proportion  of 
the  whole  number.  The  actual  proportion  has 
been  variously  estimated,  at  J,  J,  i,  i,  &c.  if  we 
adopt  the  last  as  our  basis,  it  will  make  the 
number  of  hired   slaves,  in   the  United  States, 

FIVE    HUNDRED    AND  FORTY    THOUSAND  ! 

6th.  Slaves  under  overseers  whose  wages  are  a 
part  of  the  crop. — That  this  is  a  common  usage 
appears  from  the  following  testimony.     The  lat» 


138 


Objections  Considered — Interest  of  Masters. 


Hon.  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline  Co.  Virginia,  one 
of  the  largest  slaveholders  in  the  state,  President 
of  the  State  Agricultural  Society,  and  three 
times  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
says,  in  his  "  Agricultuj-al  Essays,"  No.  15.  P. 
57, 

"  Tiiis  necessary  class  of  men,  (overseers,)  are 
bribed  by  agriculturalists,  not  to  improve,  but  to 
impoverish  their  land,  by  a  share  of  the  crop  for 
one  year.  .  .  .  The  greatest  annual  crop, 
and  not  the  most  judicious  culture,  advances  his 
interest,  and  establishes  his  character  ;  and  the 
fees  of  these  land-doctors,  are  much  higher  for 
killing  than  for  curing.  .  .  .  The  most 
which  the  land  can  yield,  and  seldom  or  never 
improvement  with  a  view  to  future  profit,  is  a 
point  of  common  consent,  and  mutual  need  be- 
tween the  agriculturist  and  his  overseer.  .  . 
Must  the  practice  of  hiring  a  man  for  one  year, 
by  a  share  of  the  crop,  to  lay  out  all  his  skill  and 
industry  in  killing  land,  and  as  little  as  possible 
in  improving  it,  be  kept  up  to  commemorate  the 
pious  leaning  of  man  to  his  primitive  .state  of  ig- 
norance and  barbarity  ?  Unless  this  is  abolished, 
the  attempt  to  fertilize  our  lands,  k  needless." 

Philemon  Bhss,  Esq.  of  EljTia,  Ohio,  who 
lived  in  Florida,  in  1834-5,  says, 

"  It  is  common  for  owners  of  plantations  and 
.slaves,  to  hire  overseers  to  take  charge  of  them, 
while  they  themselves  reside  at  a  distance. 
Their  wages  depend  principally  upon  the  amount 
of  labnr  lohich  they  can  exact  from  the  slave. 
The  term  "  good  overseer,"  signifies  one  who 
can  make  the  greatest  amount  of  the  staple,  cot- 
ton for  instance,  from  a  given  number  of  hands, 
besides  raising  sufficient  provisions  for  their  con- 
sumption. He  has  no  interest  in  the  hfe  of  the 
slave.  Hence  the  fact,  so  notorious  at  the  south, 
that  negroes  are  driven  harder  and  fare  worse 
under  overseers  than  under  their  owners. 

William  Ladd,  Esq.  of  Minot,  Maine,  formerly 
a  slaveholder  in  Florida,  speaking,  in  a  recent 
letter  of  the  system  of  labor  adopted  there,  says  ; 
''  The  compensation  of  the  overseers  was  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  the  crop." 

Rev,  Phineas  Smith,  of  Centreville,  Allegany 
Co.  N.  Y.  who  has  recently  returned  from  a  four 
years'  residence,  in  the  Southern  slave  states  and 
Texas,  says, 

"  The  mode  in  which  many  plantations  are 
managed,  is  calculated  and  designed,  as  an  in- 
ducement to  the  slave  driver,  to  lay  upon  the 
slave  the  greatest  possible  burden,  the  overseer 
being  entitled  by  contract,  to  a  certain  share  of 
the  crop." 

We  leave  the  reader  to  form  his  own  opinion, 
as  to  the  proportion  of  slaves  under  overseers, 
whose  wages  are  in  proportion  to  the  crop,  raised 
by  them.     Wc  have  little   doubt  that  we  shall 


escape  the  charge  of  wishing  to  make  out  a 
"  strong  case"  when  we  put  the  proportion  at  one. 
eighth  of  the  whole  number  of  slaves,  which 
would  be  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 

Without  drawing  out  upon  the  page  a  sum  in 
addition  for  the  reader  to  "  run  up,"  it  is  easily 
seen  that  the  slaves  in  the  preceding  classes, 
amount  to  more  than  eleven  hundred  TUotSAND, 
exclusive  of  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  the  blind, 
many  of  whom,  especially  the  former,  might  be 
profitable  to  their  ''  owners." 

Now  it  is  plainly  for  the  interest  of  the  ''  owners" 
of  these  slaves,  or  of  those  who  have  the  charge 
of  them,  to  treat  them  cruelly,  to  overwork, 
under-feed,  half-clothe,  half.shelter,  poison,  or 
kill  outright,  the  ag<;d,  the  broken  down,  the 
incurably  diseased,  idiots,  feeble  infants,  most  of 
the  bhnd,  some  deaf  and  dumb,  &.c.  It  is  be- 
sides a  part  of  the  slave-holder's  creed,  that  it  is 
for  his  interest  to  treat  with  terrible  severity,  all 
runaways  and  the  incorrigibly  stubborn,  thievish, 
lazy,  &c.;  also  for  those  who  hire  slaves,  to  over- 
icork  them  ;  also  for  overseers  to  overwork  the 
slaves  under  them,  when  their  own  wages  are 
increased  by  it. 

We  have  thus  shown  that  it  vrould  be  "  for  the 
interest,"  of  masters  and  overseers  to  treat  with 
habitual  cruelty  more  than  one  million  of  the 
slaves  in  the  United  States.  But  this  is  not  all ; 
as  we  have  said  already,  it  is  for  the  interest  of 
overseers  generally,  whether  their  wages  are 
proportioned  to  the  crop  or  not,  to  overwork  the 
slaves  ;  we  need  not  repeat  the  reasons. 

Neither  is  it  necessary  to  re-state  the  argu 
ments,  going  to  show  that  it  is  for  the  interest 
of  slaveholders,  who  cultivate  the  great  south- 
ern staples,  especially  cotton,  and  the  sugar  cane, 
to  overwork  periodically  all  their  slaves,  and 
habitually  the  majority  of  them,  when  the  de- 
mand for  those  staples  creates  high  prices,  as  has 
been  the  case  with  cotton  for  many  years,  with 
little  exception.  Instead  of  entering  into  a 
labored  estimate  to  get  at  the  proportion  of 
tlie  slaves,  affected  by  the  operation  of  these  and 
the  other  causes  enumerated,  we  may  say,  that 
they  operate  directly  on  the  "  field  hands," 
employed  in  raising  the  southern  staples,  and  in- 
directly upon  all  classes  of  the  slaves. 

Finally,  we  conclude  this  head  by  turning  the 
objector's  negative  proposition  into  an  afiirma. 
five  one,  and  state  formally  what  has  been  already 
proved. 

It  is  for  the  interest  of  slaveholders,  upon  their 
oien  principles,  and  by  their  oipn  shouting,  to 
TREAT  CRUELLY  the  great  body  of  their  slaves 


Objections  Considered — Rapid  Increase  of  Slaves. 


139 


Objection  VI.—'  THE    FACT  THAT  THE  SLAVES  MULTIPLY  SO  RAPIDLY  PROVES 

THAT    THEY   ARE    NOT   INHUMANLY    TREATED,    BUT  ARE  IN  A 

COMFORTABLE    CONDITION.' 


To  this  we  reply  in  brief,  1st.  It  has  been  al- 
ready shown  under  a  previous  head,  that,  in  con- 
siderable sections  of  the  slave  states,  especially 
in  the  South  West,  the  births  among  slaves  are 
fewer  than  the  deaths,  which  would  exhibit  a 
fearful  decrease  of  the  slave  population  in  those 
sections,  if  the  deficiency  were  not  made  up  by 
the  slave  trade  from  the  upper  country. 

2d.  The  fact  that  all  children  born  of  slave 
mothers,  whether  their  fathers  are  whites  or  free 
colored  persons,  are  included  in  the  census  with 
the  slaves,  and  further  that  all  children  born  of 
white  mothers,  whose  fathers  are  mulattos  or 
blacks,  are  also  included  in  the  census  with  color- 
ed persons  and  almost  invariably  with  slaves, 
shows  that  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  with  any 
accuracy,  what  is  the  actual  increase  of  tie  slaves 
alone. 

3d.  The  fact  that  thousands  of  slaves,  gener- 
ally in  the  prime  of  hfe,  are  annually  smuggled 
into  the  United  States  from  Africa,  Cuba,  and 
elsewhere,  makes  it  manifest  that  all  inferences 
drawn  from  the  increase  of  the  slave  population, 
which  do  not  make  large  deductions,  for  con- 
stant importations,  must  be  fallacious.  Mr. 
Middleton  of  South  Carolina,  in  a  speech  in  Con- 
gross  in  1819,  declared  that  "thirteen  thou- 
sand    AFRICANS     ARE     ANNUALLY     SMUGGLED     INTO 

THE  SOUTHERN  STATES."  Mr.  Mcrcer  of  Virgi- 
nia, in  a  speech  in  Congress  about  the  same 
time  declared  that "  Cargoes,"  of  African  slaves 
were  smuggled  into  the  South  to  a  deplorable 
extent. 

Mr.  Wright,  of  Maryland,  in  a  speech  in  Con- 
gress, estimated  the  number  annually  at  fifteen 
THOUSAND.  Miss  Martincau,  in  her  recent  work, 
(Society  in  America,)  informs  us  that  a  large 
slaveholder  in  Louisiana,  assured  her  in  1835, 
that  the  annual  importation  of  native  Africans 
was  from    thirteen   to    fifteen    thousand. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  December,  1837,  says, 

"  The  large  force  under  Commodore  Dallas,  [on 
the  West  India  station,]  has  been  most  actively 
and  efficiently  employed  in  protecting  our  com- 
merce, IN  preventing  THE  IMPORTATION  OF  SLAVES," 
&C.  &C. 

The  New  Orleans  Courier  of  15th  February, 
1839,  has  these  remarks  : 

"  It  is  believed  that  African  negroes  have  been 
repeatedly  introduced  into  the  United  States. 
The  number  and  the  proximity  of  the  Florida 
ports  to  the  island  of  Cuba,  make  it  no  difficult 
matter  ;  nor  is  our  extended  frontier  on  the  Sa- 
bine and  Rod  rivers,  at  all  unfavorable  to  the 
smuggler.     Human  laws  have,  in  all  countries 


and  ages,  been  violated  whenever  the  inducements 
to  do  so  afforded  hopes  of  great  profit. 

"  The  United  States'  law  against  the  importa- 
tion of  Africans,  could  it  be  strictly  enforced, 
might  in  a  few  years  give  the  sugcir  and  cotton 
planters  of  Texas  advantage  over  those  of  this 
state ;  as  it  would,  we  apprehend,  enable  the 
former,  under  a  stable  government,  to  furnish  cot- 
ton and  sugar  at  a  lower  price  than  we  can  do. 
When  giving  publicity  to  such  reflections  as  the 
subject  seems  to  suggest,  we  protest  against  being 
considered  advocates  for  any  violation  of  the  laws 
of  our  country.  Every  good  citizen  must  respect 
those  laws,  notwithstanding  we  may  deem  them 
likely  to  be  evaded  by  men  less  scrupulous." 

That  both  the  south  and  north  swarm  with 
men  '  less  scrupulous,'  every  one  knows. 

The  Norfolk  (Va.)  Beacon,  of  June  8,  1837, 
has  the  following  : 

"  Slave-Trade. — Eight  African  negroes  have 
been  taken  into  custody,  at  Apalachieola,  bj'  the 
U.  S,  Deputy  Marshal,  alleged  to  have  been  im- 
ported from  Cuba,  on  board  the  schooner  Empe- 
ror, Captain  Cox.  I-'idictmcnts  for  piracy,  under 
the  acts  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade, 
have  been  found  against  Captain  Cox,  and  other 
;iarties  implicated.  The  negroes  were  bought  in 
( 'uba  by  a  Frenchman  named  Malherbc,  former- 
ly a  resident  of  Tallahassee,  who  was  drowned 
soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  schooner." 

The  following  testimony  of  Rev.  Horace 
MouLTON,  now  a  minister  of  the  Methodist  Epis 
copal  Church,  in  Marlborough,  Mass.  who  re 
sided  some  years  in  Georgia,  reveals  some  of  the 
secrets  of  the  slave-smugglers,  and  the  connivance 
of  the  Georgia  authorities  at  their  doings.  It  is 
contained  in  a  letter  dated  February  24,  1839. 

"  The  foreign  slave-trade  was  carried  on  to 
some  considerable  extent  when  I  was  at  the 
south,  notwithstanding  a  law  had  been  made 
some  ten  years  previous  to  this,  making  this  traffic 
piracy  on  the  high  seas.  I  was  somewhat  ac- 
quainted with  the  secrets  of  this  traffic,  and,  I 
suppose,  I  might  have  engaged  in  it,  had  I  so  de- 
sired. Were  you  to  visit  all  the  plantations  in 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Missis- 
sippi, I  think  you  would  be  convinced  that  the 
horrors  of  the  traffic  in  human  flesh  have  not  yet 
ceased.  I  was  surprised  to  find  so  many  that 
could  not  speak  English  among  the  slaves,  until 
the  mystery  was  explained.  This  was  done, 
when  I  learned  that  slave-cargoes  were  landed 
on  the  coast  of  Florida,  not  a  thousand  miles  from 
St.  Augustine.  They  could,  and  can  still,  in  my 
opinion,  be  landed  as  safely  on  tliis  coast  as  in 
any  port  of  this  continent.  You  can  imagine  for 
yourself  how  easy  it  was  to  carry  on  the  traffic 
between  this  place  and  the  West  Indies.  When 
landed  on  the  coast  of  Florida,  it  is  an  easy  mat- 
ter to  distribute  them  throughout  the  more  south 
em  states.  The  law  which  makes  it  piracy  to 
traffic  in  the  foreign  slave  trade  is  a  dead  letter ; 


140 


Objections  Considered — Rapid  Increase  of  Slaves. 


and  I  doubt  not  it  has  been  so  in  the  more  south- 
ern states  ever  since   it  was  enacted.     For  you 
can   perceive  at  once,  that  interested  men,  who 
beUevc  the  colored  man  is  so  much  better  off  here 
than  he  possibly  can  be  m  Africa,  will  not  hesi- 
tate to  kidnap  tlic  blacks  whenever  an  opportu- 
nity presents  itself.     I  will   notice  one  fact  that 
came  under  my  own  observation,  which  will  con- 
vince you  that  the  horrors  of  the  foreign  slave- 
trade  have  not  yet  ceased  among   our  southern 
gentry.     It  is  as  follows.     A  slave  ship,  which  I 
have  reason  to  believe  was  employed  by  southern 
men,  came  near  the  port  of  Savannah  with  about 
FIVE  HUNDRED  SLAVES,  froDi  Guinea  and  Congo. 
It  was  said  that  the  ship  was  driven  there  by  con- 
trary   winds ;    and  the   crew,    pretending    to  be 
short  of  provisions,    run  the  ship  into  a  by  place, 
near  the  shore,  between  Tybee  Light  and  Darien, 
to  recruit  their  stores.    Well,  as  Providence  would 
have  it,  the  revenue  cutter,  at  that  time  taking  a 
trip  along  the  coast,  fell  in  with  this  slave  ship, 
took  her  as  a  prize,  and  brought  her  up  into  the 
port  of  Savannah.     The  cargo  of  human  chattels 
was  unloaded,  and  the  captives  were   placed  in 
an  old  barracks,  in  the  fort  of  Savannah,  under 
the   protection  of  the  city  authorities,  they  pre- 
tending that  they  should  return  them  all  to  their 
native  country  again,   as   soon  as  a   convenient 
opportunity  presented  itself.     The  ship's  crew  of 
course  were  arrested,  and  confined  in  jail.     Now 
for  the  sequel  of  this  history.     About  one  third 
part  of  the  negroes  died  in  a  few  weeks  after  they 
were   landed,  in  seasoning,   so  called,  or  in  be- 
coming acclimated — or,  as  I  should  think,  a  dis- 
temper broke  out   among  them,  and  they  died 
like  the  Israelites,  when  smitten  with  the  plague. 
Those  who  did   not  die   in    seasoning,   must  be 
hired  out  a  little  while,  to  be  sure,  as  the  city  au- 
thorities could  not  afford  to  keep  them  on  expense 
doing  nothing.      As  it  happened,   the  man    in 
whose  employ  I  was  when  the  cargo  of  human 
beings  arrived,  hired  some  twenty  or  thirty  of 
them,  and  put  them  under  my  care.     They  con- 
tinued with  me  until  the  sickly  season  drove  me 
off  to  the  north.     I  soon  retarned,  but  could  not 
hear  a  word  about  the  crew  of  pirates.     They  had 
something  like  a  mock  trial,   as  I   should  think, 
for  no  one,  as   I  ever  learned,  was  condemned, 
fined,   or  censured.     But  where    were  the  poor 
captives,  who  were  going  to  be  returned  to  Afri- 
ca by  the  city  authorities,  as  soon  as  they  could 
make  it  convenient  ?      Oh,   forsooth,  those    of 
whom   I   spoke,  being  under  my  care,  were  tug- 
ging away  for  the  same   man  ;  the    remainder 
were  scattered  about  among  different  planters. 
When  I  returned  to  the  north  again,  the  ne.xt 
year,  the  city  authorities  had  not,  down   to  that 
time,   made  it  convenient  to  return  these  poor 
victims.     The  fact  is,  they  belonged  there  ;  and, 
in  my  opinion,  they  were  designed  to  be  landed 
near  by  the  place  where  the  revenue  cutter  seized 
them.      Probably  those  very  planters  for  whom 
they  were  originally  designed  received  them  ;  and 
still  there  was  a  pretence  kept  up  that  they  would 
be    returned  to  Africa.      This  must  have  been 
done,   that  the   consciences  of  those    might  be 
quieted,  who  were  looking   for  justice  to  be  ad- 
ministered to  these  poor  captives.     It  is  easy  for 
a  company  of  slaveholders,  who  desire  to  traffic 
in  human  flesh,  to  fit  out  a  vessel,  under  Spanish 


colors,  and  then  go  prowling  about  the  African 
coast  for  the  victims  of  their  lusts.  If  all  the 
facts  with  relation  to  the  African  slave-trade, 
now  secretly  carried  on  at  the  south,  could  be 
disclosed,  the  people  of  the  free  states  would  be 
filled  with  amazement." 

It  is  plain,  from  the  nature  of  this  trade,  and 
the  circumstances  under  which  it  is  carried  on, 
that  the  number  of  slaves  imported  would  be 
likely  to  be  estimated  far  below  the  truth.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  estimate  of  Mr. 
Wright,  of  Maryland,  (fifteen  thousand  annu- 
ally,) is  some  thousands  too  small.  But  even 
according  to  his  estimate,  the  African  slave-trade 

adds  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  THOUSAND  SLAVES  TO 

EACH  United  States'  census.  These  are  in  the 
prime  of  life,  and  their  children  would  swell  the 
slave  population  many  thousands  annually — thus 
making  a  great  addition  to  each  census. 

4.  It  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  large  numbers  of 
free  colored  persons  are  kidnapped  every  year  in 
the  free  states,  taken  to  the  south,  and  sold  as 
slaves. 

Hon.  George  M.  Stroud,  Judge  of  the  Crim 
inal  Court  of  Philadelphia,  in  his  sketch  of  the 
slave  laws,  speaking  of  the  kidnapping  of  free 
colored  persons  in  the  northern  states,  says — 

"  Remote  as  is  the  city  of  Philadelphia  from 
those  slaveholding  states  in  which  the  introduc- 
tion of  slaves  from  places  within  the  territory  of 
the  United  States  is  freely  permitted,  and  where 
also  the  market  is  tempting,  it  has  been  ascertain, 
ed,  that  more  than  thirty  free  colored  per- 
sons, MOSTLY  children,  HAVE  BEEN  KIDNAPPED 
here,  AND    CARRIED  AWAY,  WITHIN    THE    LAST    TWO 

YEARS.  Five  of  these,  through  the  kind  interpo- 
sition of  several  humane  gentlemen,  have  been 
restored  to  their  friends,  though  not  without  great 
expense  and  difficulty;  the  others  are  still  retain- 
ed in  bondage,  and  if  rescued  at  all,  it  must  be  by 
sending  white  witnesses  a  journey  of  more  than  a 
thousand  miles.  The  costs  attendant  upon  law. 
suits,  under  such  circumstances,  will  probably 
fall  but  little  short  of  the  estimated  value,  as 
slaves,  of  the  individuals  kidnapped." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  Mrs.  Child's 
Appeal,  pp.  64-6. 

"  I  know  the  names  of  four  colored  citizens  of 
Massachusetts,  who  went  to  Georgia  on  board  a 
vessel,  were  seized  under  the  laws  of  that  state, 
and  sold  as  slaves.  They  have  sent  the  most 
earnest  exhortations  to  their  families  and  friends, 
to  do  something  for  their  relief;  but  tlie  attendant 
expenses  require  more  money  than  the  friends  of 
negroes  are  apt  to  have,  and  the  poor  fellows,  as 
yet,  remain  unassisted. 

"  A  New  York  paper,  of  November,  1829,  con 
tains  the  following  caution. 

"  Beicare  of  Kidnappers ! — It  is  well  under- 
stood, that  there  is  at  present  in  this  city,  a  gang 
of  kidnappers,  busilv  engaged  in  their  vocation, 
of  stealing  colored  children  for  the  southern  mar- 
ket.    It  is  beheved  that  three  or  four  have  been 


Objections  Considered — Kidnapping. 


141 


stolen  within  as  many  days.  There  are  suspi- 
cions of  a  foul  nature  connected  with  some  who 
serve  the  police  in  subordinate  capacities.  It  is 
hinted  that  there  may  be  those  in  some  authority, 
not  altogether  ignorant  of  these  diabolical  prac- 
tices. Let  the  public  be  on  their  guard  !  It  is 
still  fresh  in  the  memories  of  all,  that  a  cargo,  or 
rather  drove  of  negroes,  was  made  up  from  this 
city  and  Philadelphia,  about  the  time  that  the 
emancipation  of  all  the  negroes  in  this  state  took 
place,  under  our  present  constitution,  and  were 
taken  through  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Ten- 
nessee, and  disposed  of  in  the  state  of  Mississippi. 
Some  of  those  who  were  taken  from  Philadelphia 
were  persons  of  intelligence  ;  and  after  they  had 
been  driven  through  the  country  in  chains,  and 
disposed  of  by  sale  on  the  Mississippi,  wrote  back 
to  their  friends,  and  were  rescued  from  bondage. 
The  persons  who  were  guilty  of  this  abominable 
transaction  are  known,  and  now  reside  in  North 
Carolina.  They  may  yery  probably  be  engaged 
in  similar  enterprizes  at  the  present  time — at 
least  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  the  system  of 
kidnapping  free  persons  of  color  from  the  northern 
cities,  has  been  carried  on  more  extensively  than 
the  public  are  generally  aware  of." 

George  Bradtsurn,  Esq.  of  Nantucket,  Mass. 
a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  that  state,  at  its 
last  session,  made  a  report  to  that  body,  March 
6,  1839,  '  On  the  deliverance  of  citizens  liable  to 
be  sold  as  slaves.'  That  report  contains  the  fol- 
lowing facts  and  testimony. 

"  The  following  facts  are  a  few  out  of  a  vast 
MULTITUDE,  to  whicli  the  attention  of  the  under- 
signed has  been  directed. 

"  On  the  27th  of  February  last,  the  undersigned 
had  an  interview  with  the  Rev.  Samuel  Snowden, 
a  respectable  and  intelligent  clergyman  of  the 
city  of  Boston.  This  gentleman  stated,  and  he 
is  now  ready  to  make  oath,  that  during  the  last 
six  years,  he  has  himself,  by  the  aid  of  various 
benevolent  individuals,  procured  the  deliverance 
from  jail  of  six  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  who 
had  been  arrested  and  imprisoned  as  runaway 
slaves,  and  who,  but  for  his  timely  interposition, 
would  have  been  sold  into  perpetual  bondage. 
The  names  and  the  places  of  imprisonment  of 
those  persons,  as  stated  by  Mr.  S.  were  as  follows : 

"James  Hight,  imprisoned  at  Mobile  ;  William 
Adams,  at  Norfolk ;  William  Holmes,  also  at 
Norfolk;  James  Oxford,  at  Wilmington;  James 
Smith,  at  Baton  Rouge  ;  John  Tidd,  at  New 
Orleans. 

"  In  1836,  Mary  Sn:)ith,  a  native  of  this  state, 
returning  from  New  Orleans,  whither  she  had 
been  in  the  capacity  of  a  servant,  was  cast  upon 
the  shores  of  North  Carolina.  She  was  there 
seized  and  sold  as  a  slave.  Information  of  the 
fact  reached  her  friends  at  Boston.  Those  friends 
made  an  effort  to  obtain  her  liberation.  They 
invoked  the  assistance  of  the  Governor  of  this 
Commonwealth.  A  correspondence  ensued  be- 
tween His  Excellency  and  the  Governor  of  North 
Carolina  :  copies  of  which  were  offered  for  the 
inspection  of  your  committee.  Soon  afterwards, 
by  permission  of  the  authorities  of  North  Caroli- 
na, '  Mary  Smith'  returned  to  Boston.  But  it 
turned  out,  that  this  was  not  the   Mary  Smith,  | 


whom  our  worthy  Governor,  and  other  excellent 
individuals  of  Boston,  had  taken  so  unwearied 
pains  to  redeem  from  slavery.  It  was  another 
woman,  of  the  same  name,  who  was  also  a  native 
of  Massachusetts,  and  had  been  seized  in  North 
Carolina  as  a  runaway  slave.  The  Mary  Smith 
has  not  yet  been  heard  of.  If  alive,  she  is  now, 
in  all  probability,  wearing  the  chains  of  slavery. 
"  About  a  year  and  a  half  since,  several  citizens 
of  different  free  states  were  rescued  from  slavery, 
at  New  Orleans,  by  the  direct  personal  efforts  of 
an  acquaintance  of  the  undersigned.  The  be- 
nevolent individual  alluded  to  is  Jacob  Barker, 
Esq.  a  name  not  unknown  to  the  commercial 
world.  Mr.  Barker  is  a  resident  of  New  Or- 
leans. A  statement  of  the  cases  in  reference  is 
contained  in  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  the  Hon, 
Samuel  H.  Jenks,  of  Nantucket." 

The  letter  of  Mr.  Barker,  referred  to  in  this 
report  to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  bears 
date  August  19,  1837.  The  following  are  extracts 
from  it. 

"A  free  man,  belonging  to  Baltimore,  by  the 
name  of  Ephraim  Larkin,  who  came  here  cook 
of  the  William  Tell,  was  arrested  and  thrown  into 
prison  a  few  weeks  since,  and  sent  in  chains  to 
work  on  the  road.  I  heard  of  it,  and  with  diffi- 
culty found  him  ;  and  after  the  most  diligent  and 
active  exertions,  got  him  released — in  effecting 
which,  I  traveled  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  ther 
mometer  ranging  in  the  shade  from  94  to  100, 
more  than  twenty  times  to  and  from  prison,  the 
place  of  his  labor,  and  the  different  courts,  a  dis- 
tance of  near  three  miles  from  my  residence  ;  and 
after  I  had  established  his  freedom,  had  to  pay 
for  his  arrest,  maintenance,  and  the  advertising 
him  as  a  runaway  slave,  $29  89,  as  per  copy  of 
bill  herewith — the  allowance  for  work  not  equal- 
ling  the  expenses,  the  amount  augments  with 
every  day  of  confinement. 

"  In  pursuing  the  cook  of  the  William  Tell,  I 
found  three  other  free  men,  confined  in  the  same 
prison  ;  one  belonged  also  to  Baltimore,  by  the 
name  of  Leaven  Dogerty  :  he  was  also  released, 
on  my  paying  $28  expenses ;  one  was  a  descend- 
ant of  the  Indians  who  once  inhabited  Nantucket 
— his  name  is  Eral  Lonnon.  Lonnon  had  been  six 
weeks  in  prison ;  he  was  released  without  diffi- 
culty,  on  my  paying  $20  38  expenses — and  no 
one  seemed  to  know  why  he  had  been  confined 
or  arrested,  as  the  law  does  not  presume  persons 
of  mixed  blood  to  be  slaves.  But  for  the  others, 
I  had  great  difficulty  in  procuring  what  was  con- 
sidered competent  witnesses  to  prove  them  free. 
No  complaint  of  improper  conduct  had  been 
made  against  either  of  them.  At  one  time,  the 
Recorder  said  the  witness  must  be  white  ;  at  an- 
other, that  one  respectable  witness  was  insuffi- 
cient ;  at  another,  that  a  person  who  had  been 
(improperly)  confined  and  released,  was  not  a 
competent  witness,  &.c.  &c.  Lonnon  has  been 
employed  in  the  South  Sea  fishery  from  Nan- 
tucket and  New  Bedford,  nearly  all  his  life  :  has 
sailed  on  those  voyages  in  the  ships  Eagle.  Mary- 
land, Gideon,  Triton,  and  Samuel.  He  was 
born  at  Marshpee,  Plymouth  [Barnstable]  coun- 
ty, Mass.  and  prefers  to  encounter  the  leviatlian 
of  tiic  deep,  rather  than  the  turnkeys  of  New 
Orleans. 


142 


Objections  Considered — Kidnapping. 


"  The  other  was  bom  in  St.  Johns,  Nova  Sco- 
tia, and  bears  the  name  of  Wilham  Smith,  a 
seaman  by  profession. 

"  Imnudiatcly  after  these  men  were  released, 
two  others  were  arrested.  They  attempted  to 
escape,  and  being  pursued,  ran  for  the  river,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  being  able  to  swim  across  the 
Mississippi,  a  distance  of  a  mile,  with  a  current 
of  four  knots.  One  soon  gave  out,  and  made  for 
a  boat  which  had  been  despatched  for  their  re- 
covery, and  was  saved  ;  the  other  being  a  better 
swimmer,  continued  on  until  much  exhausted, 
then  also  made  for  the  boat — it  was  too  late  ;  he 
sank  before  the  boat  could  reach  him,  and  was 
drowned.     They  claimed  to  be  freemen. 

"  On  Sunday  last  I  was  called  to  the  prison  of 
the  Municipality  in  which  I  reside,  to  serve  on 
an  inquest  on  the  body  of  a  drowned  man.  There 
I  saw  one  other  free  man  confined,  by  the  name 
of  Henry  Tier,  a  yellow  man,  born  in  New  York, 
and  formerly  in  my  employ.  He  had  been  con- 
fined as  a  supposed  runaway,  near  six  months, 
without  a  particle  of  testimony  ;  although  from  his 
color,  the  laws  of  Louisiana  presume  him  to  be 
free.  I  applied  immediately  for  his  release,  which 
was  promptly  granted.  At  first,  expenses  simi- 
lar  to  those  exacted  in  the  third  Municipality 
were  required  ;  but  on  my  demonstrating  to  the 
recorder  that  the  law  imposed  no  such  burthen 
on  free  men,  he  was  released  without  any  charge 
whatever.  How  free  men  can  obtain  satisfac 
tion  for  having  been  thus  wrongfully  imprisoned, 
and  made  to  work  in  chains  on  the  highway,  is 
not  for  me  to  decide.  I  apprehend  no  satisfac- 
tion can  be  had  without  more  active  friends, 
willing  to  espouse  their  cause,  than  can  be  found 
m  this^ quarter.  Therefore  I  repeat,  that  no  per- 
son of  color  should  come  here  without  a  certifi- 
cate of  freedom  from  the  governor  of  the  state  to 
which  he  belongs. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  assured  friend, 

"Jacob  Barker." 

"  N.  B. — Since  writing  the  preceding,  1  have 
procured  the  release  of  another  free  man  from 
the  prison  of  the  third  Municipality,  on  the  pay- 
ment of  .$39  65,  as  per  bill,  copy  herewith.  His 
name  is  William  Lockman— he  was  bom  in  New 
Jersey,  of  free  parents,  and  resides  at  Philadel- 
phia. A  greater  sum  was  required  which  was  re- 
duced by  the  allowance  of  his  maintenance  (writ- 
ten labor,)  while  at  work  on  the  road,  which  the 
law  requires  the  Municipality  to  pay  ;  but  it  had 
not  before  been  so  expounded  in  the  third  Muni- 
cipality. I  hope  to  get  it  back  in  the  case  of  the 
other  three.  The  allowance  for  labor,  in  addition 
to  their  maintenance,  is  twenty-five  cents  per 
day  ;  but  they  require  those  illiterate  men  to  ad- 
vance the  whole  before  they  can  leave  the  prison, 
and  then  to  take  a  certificate  for  their  labor,  and 
go  for  it  to  another  department— to  collect  which, 
is  ten  times  more  trouble  than  the  money  when 
received  is  worth.  While  these  free  men,  with- 
out having  committed  any  fault,  were  compelled 
to  work  in  chains,  on  the  roads,  in  the  burning 
sun,  for  25  cents  per  day,  and  pay  in  advance 
18  3-4  cents  per  day  for  maintenance,  doctor's, 
and  other  bills,  and  not  able  to  work  half  their 
time,  I  i)aid  others,  working  on  ship-board,  in 
sight,  two  dollars  per  day.  J-  B." 


The  preceding  letter  of  Mr.  Barker,  furnishes 
grounds  for  the  belief,  that  hundreds,  if  not  thou, 
sands  of  free  colored  persons,  from  the  JifTcrent 
states  of  this  Union,  both  slave  and  free  Jrom  the 
West  Indies,  South  America,  Mexico,  and  the 
British  possessions  in  North  America,  and  from 
other  parts  of  the  world,  are  reduced  to  slavery 
every  year  in  our  slave  states.  If  a  single  mdi- 
vidual,  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  accidentally 
discovered  six  colored  free  men,  working  in  irons, 
and  soon  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  in  a  single  southern 
city,  is  it  not  fair  to  infer,  that  in  all  the  slave 
states,  there  must  be  multitudes  of  such  persons, 
now  in  slavery,  and  that  this  number  is  rapidly 
increasing,  by  ceaseless  accessions  ? 

The  letter  of  Mr.  Barker  is  valuable,  also,  as  a 
graphic  delineation  of  the  '  public  opinion'  of  the 
south.  The  great  difficulty  with  which  the  re- 
lease of  these  free  men  was  procured,  notwith- 
standing the  personal  efforts  of  Mr.  Jacob 
Barker,  who  is  a  gentleman  of  influence,  and 
has,  we  believe,  been  an  alderman  of  New  Or- 
leans,  reveals  a  'public  opinion,'  insensible  as 
adamant  to  the  liberty  of  colored  men. 

It  would  be  easy  to  fill  scores  of  pages  with  de- 
tails similar  to  the  preceding.  We  have  furnish- 
ed enough,  however,  to  show,  that,  in  all  proba. 
bility,  each  United  States'  census  of  the  slave 
population,  is  increased  by  the  addition  to  it  of 
thousands  of  free  colored  persons,  kidnapped  and 
sold  as  slaves. 

5th.  To  argue  that  the  rapid  multiplication  of 
any  class  in  the  community,  is  proof  that  such 
a  class  is  well-clothed,  well-housed,  abundantly 
fed,  and  very  comfortable,  is  as  absurd  as  to  argue 
that  those  who  have  few  children,  must,  of 
course,  be  ill-clothed,  ill-housed,  badly  lodged, 
overworked,  ill-fed,  &c.  &c.  True,  privations 
and  inflictions  may  be  carried  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  occasion  a  fearful  diminishment  of  popula 
tion.  That  was  the  case  generally  with  the 
slave  population  in  the  West  Indies,  and,  as  has 
been  shown,  is  true  of  certain  portions  of  the 
southern  states.  But  the  fact  that  such  an  effect 
is  not  produced,  does  not  prove  that  the  slaves  do 
not  experience  great  privations  and  severe  inflic- 
tions. They  may  suffer  much  hardship,  and 
great  cmelties,  without  experiencing  so  great  a 
derangement  of  the  vital  functions  as  to  prevent 
child-bearing.  The  Israelites  multiplied  with 
astonishing  rapidity,  under  the  task-masters  and 
burdens  of  Egypt.  Does  this  falsify  the  declara- 
tions of  Scripture,  that  '  they  sighed  by  reason  of 
their  bondage,'  and  that  the  Egjiitians  'made 
them  serve  xoith  rigor,'  and  made  '  their  lives 
bitter  with  hard  bondage:  '  I  have  seen,'  said 
God, '  their  afflictions.  I  have  heard  their  groan 
ings,'  &,c.  The  history  of  the  human  race  shows, 
that  great  privations  and  much  suffering  may  be 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


143 


experienced,    without    materially   checking    the 
rapid  increase  of  population. 

Besides,  if  we  should  give  to  the  objection  all 
it  claims,  it  would  merely  prove,  that  the  female 
slaves,  or  rather  a  portion  of  them,  are  in  a  com- 
fortable condition  ;  and  that,  so  far  as  the  abso- 
lute neces^ities  of  life  are  concerned,  the  females 
of  child-bearing  age,  in  Delaware,  Maryland, 
northern,  western,  and  middle  Virginia,  the  upper 


parts  of  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  and  among  the 
mountains  of  east  Tennessee  and  western  North 
Carolina,  are  in  general  tolerably  well  supplied. 
The  same  remark,  with  some  qualifications,  may 
be  made  of  the  slaves  generally,  in  those  parts  of 
the  country  where  the  people  are  slaveholders, 
mainly,  that  they  may  enjoy  the  privilege  and 
profit  of  being  slave-breeders. 


Objection  VIII.— '  PUBLIC  OPINION  IS  A   PROTECTION  TO  THE  SLAVE.' 


Answer.  It  was  public  opinion  that  made  man 
a  slave.  In  a  republican  government  the  people 
make  the  laws,  and  those  laws  are  merely  public 
opinion  in  legal  forms.  We  repeat  it, — public  | 
opinion  made  them  slav-cs,  and  keeps  them  slaves  ; 
in  other  words,  it  sunk  them  from  men  to  chattels, 
and  now,  forsooth,  this  same  public  opinion  will 
eee  to  it,  that  these  chattels  are  treated  like  men  ! 

By  looking  a  little  into  this  matter,  and  finding 
out  how  this  '  public  opinion'  (law)  protects  the 
slaves  in  some  particulars,  we  can  judge  of  the 
amount  of  its  protection  in  others.  1.  It  protects 
the  slaves  from  robbery,  by  declaring  that  those 
who  robbed  their  mothers  may  rob  them  and  their 
children.  "  All  negroes,  mulatoes,  or  mestizoes 
who  now  arc,  or  shall  hereafter  be  in  this  province, 
and  all  their  offspring,  are  hereby  declared  to  be, 
and  shall  remain,  forever,  hereafter,  absolute 
slaves,  and  shall  follow  the  condition  of  the  mo- 
ther."— Law  of  South  Carolina,  2  Brevard's  Di- 
gest,  229.  Others  of  the  slave  states  have  similar 
laws. 

2.  It  protects  Xhexr persons ^  by  giving  their  master 
a  right  to  flog,  wound,  and  beat  them  when  he 
pleases.  See  Devereaux's  North  Carolina  Re- 
ports, 263.— Case  of  the  State  vs.  Mann,  1829  ;  in 
which  the  Supreme  Court  decided,  that  a  master 
who  shot  at  a  female  slave  and  wounded  her,  be- 
cause she  got  loose  from  him  when  he  was  flog- 
ging her,  and  started  to  run  from  him,  had  violated 
no  law,  AND  coCLD  NOT  BE  INDICTED.  It  has  been 
decided  by  the  highest  courts  of  the  slave  states 
generally,  that  assault  and  battery  upon  a  slave  is 
not  indictable  as  a  criminal  offence. 

The  following  decision  on  this  point  was  made 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  South  Carolina  in  the 
case  of  the  State  vs.  Cheetwood,  2  Hill's  Re. 
ports,  459. 

Protection  of  slaves. — "  The  criminal  oflence  of 
assault  and  battery  cannot,  at  common  late,  be 
committed  on  the  person  of  a  slave.  For,  notwith- 
standing for  some  purposes  a  slave  is  regarded  in 
law  as  a  person,  yet  generally  he  is  a  mere  chattel 
personal,  and  his  right  of  personal  protection  be. 
longs  to  his  master,  who  can  maintam  an  action 
of  trespass  for  the  battery  of  his  slave. 

''  There  can  be  therefore  no  oflence  against  the 


state  for  a  mere  beating  of  a  slave,  unaccompa- 
nied  by  any  circumstances  of  cruelty,  or  an  at- 
tempt to  kill  and  murder.  The  peace  of  the 
state  is  not  thereby  broken  ;  for  a  slave  is  not 
generally  regarded  as  legally  capable  of  being 
within  the  peace  of  the  state.  He  is  not  a 
citizen,  and  is  not  in  that  character  entitled  to 
her  protection." 

This  'public  opinion'  protects  the  persons  of 
the  slaves  by  depriving  them  of  Jury  trial  ;*  their 
consciences,  by  forbidding  them  to  assemble  for 
worship,  unless  their  oppressors  are  present  ;t 
their  characters,  by  branding  them  as  liars,  in  de- 
nying them  their  oath  in  law  ;t  their  modesty,  by 
leaving  their  master  to  clothe,  or  let  them  go  na. 
ked,  as  he  pleases  ;§  and  their  health,  by  leaving 
him  to  feed  or  starve  them,  to  work  them,  wet  or 
dry,  with  or  without  sleep,  to  lodge  them,  with 
or  without  covering,  as  the  whim  takes  him;}] 
and  their  liberty,  marriage  relations,  parental  au- 
thority, and  filial  obligations,  by  annihilating  the 
whole. IT  This  is  the  protection  which  '  public 
OPINION,'  in  the  form  of  law,  affords  to  the  slaves ; 
this  is  the  chivalrous  knight,  always  in  stirrups, 
with  lance  in  rest,  to  champion  the  cause  of  the 
slaves. 

Public  opinion,  protection  to  the  slave  !  Brazen 
effrontery,  hypocrisy,  and  falsehood  !  We  have, 
in  the  laws  cited  and  referred  to  above,  the  for 
mal  testimony  of  the  Legislatures  of  the  slave 
states,  that, '  public  opinion'  does  pertinaciously 
refuse  to  protect  the  slaves  ;  not  only  so,  but  that 
it  does  itself  persecute  and  plunder  them  all :  that 
it  originally  planned,  and  now  presides  over,  sanc- 
tions, executes  and  perpetuates  the  whole  system 
of  robbery,  torture,  and  outrage  under  which  they 
groan. 

In  all  the  slave  states,  this  '  public  opinion'  has 

*  Law  of  Soutli  Carolina.  J.inies'  Digest,  392-3.  Law 
of  Louisiana.  Martin's  Digest,  642.  Law  of  Virginia.  Rev 
Code,  429. 

t  Miss.  Rev.  Code,  390.  Similar  laws  exist  in  the  slave 
states  generally. 

t  "  A  slave  cannot  be  a  witness  against  a  white  person, 
either  in  a  civil  or  criminal  cause."  Stroud's  Sketch  erf 
the  Laws  of  Slavery,  65. 

§  Stroud's  Sketch  of  the  Slave  Laws,  132. 

0  Stroud's  Sketch,  26— .'ia. 

II  Stroud's  Sketch,  22—24. 


144 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


taken  away  from  the  slave  his  liberty;  it  has 
robbed  him  of  his  right  to  his  own  body,  of  his 
right  to  improve  his  mind,  of  his  right  to  read  the 
Bible,  of  his  right  to  worship  God  according  to 
his  conscience,  of  his  right  to  receive  and  enjoy 
what  he  earns,  of  his  right  to  live  with  his  wife 
and  children,  of  his  right  to  better  his  condition, 
of  his  right  to  eat  when  he  is  hungry,  to  rest 
when  he  is  tired,  to  sleep  when  he  needs  it,  and 
to  cover  his  nakedness  with  clothing:  this  'pub- 
lic opinion'  makes  the  slave  a  prisoner  for  life  on 
the  plantation,  except  when  his  jailor  pleases  to 
let  him  out  with  a  '  pass,'  or  sells  him,  and  trans- 
fers  him  in  irons  to  another  jail-yard  :  this  'pub- 
lic opinion'  traverses  the  country,  buying  up  men, 
women,  children — chaining  them  in  cofHes,  and 
driving  them  forever  from  their  nearest  friends ; 
It  sets  them  on  the  auction  table,  to  be  handled, 
scrutinized,  knocked  off  to  the  highest  bidder;  it 
proclaims  that  they  shall  not  have  their  liberty  ; 
and,  if  their  masters  give  it  them,  '  public  opinion' 
seizes  and  throws  them  back  into  slavery.  This 
same  '  public  opinion'  has  formally  attached  the 
following  legal  penalties  to  the  following  acts  of 
slaves. 

If  more  than  seven  slaves  are  found  together 
in  any  road,  without  a  white  person,  twenty  lashes 
a  piece  ;  for  visiting  a  plantation  without  a  writ- 
ten pass,  ten  lashes  ;  for  letting  loose  a  boat  from 
where  it  is  made  fast,  thirty-nine  lashes  for  the 
first  offence;  and  for  the  second,  ^ shall  have  cut 
off  from  his  head  one  ear ;'  for  keeping  or  carry- 
ing a  club,  thirty.nine  lashes ;  for  having  any  ar- 
ticle for  sale,  without  a  ticket  from  his  master, 
ten  lashes;  for  traveling  in  any  other  than  'the 
most  usual  and  accustomed  road,'  when  going 
alone  to  any  place,  forty  lashes;  for  traveling  in 
the  night,  without  a  pass,  forty  lashes;  for  being 
found  in  another  person's  negro-quarters,  forty 
lashes;  for  hunting  with  dogs  in  the  woods, 
thirty  lashes;  for  being  on  horseback  without  the 
written  permission  of  his  master,  twenty-five  lash- 
es; for  riding  or  going  abroad  in  the  night,  or 
riding  horses  in  the  day  time,  without  leave,  a 
slave  may  be  whipped,  cropped,  or  branded  in  the 
cheek  with  the  letter  R,  or  otherwise  punished, 
not  extending  to  life,  or  so  as  to  render  him 
unfit  for  labor.  The  laws  referred  to  may  be 
found  by  consulting  2  Brevard's  Digest,  228,  243, 
246  ;  Haywood's  Manual,  78,  chap.  13,  pp.  518, 
529  ;  1  Virginia  Revised  Code,  722-3 ;  Prince's 
Digest,  454;  2  Missouri  Laws,  741  ;  Mississippi 
Revised  Code,  371.  Laws  similar  to  these  exist 
throughout  the  southern  slave  code.  Extracts 
enough  to  fill  a  volume  miglit  be  made  from  these 
laws,  showing  that  the  protection  which  '  public 
opinion'  grants  to  the  slaves,  is  hunger,  naked. 
ncss,  terror,  bereavements,  robbery,  imprison- 
ment, the  stocks,  iron  collars,  hunting  and  wor. 


rymg  them  with  dogs  and  guns,  mutilating  their 
bodies,  and  murdering  them. 

A  few  specimens  of  the  laws  and  the  judi- 
cial decisions  on  them,  will  show  what  is  the 
state  of  'public  opinion' among  slaveholders  to- 
wards their  slaves.  Let  the  following  suffice. — 
'  Any  person  may  lawfully  kill  a  slave,  who  has 
been  outlawed  for  running  away  and  lurking  in 
swamps,  &c.' — Law  of  North  Carolina ;  Judge 
Stroud's  Sketch  of  the  Slave  Laws,  103 ;  Hay- 
wood's Manual,  524.  '  A  slave  endeavoring  to 
entice  another  slave  to  runaway,  if  provisions. 
&-C.  be  prepared  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  such 
running  away,  shall  be  punished  with  deatu. 
And  a  slave  who  shall  aid  the  slave  so  endeavoring 
to  entice  another  slave  to  run  away,  shall  also  suffer 
DEATH.' — Law  of  South  Carolina ;  Stroud's  Sketch 
of  Slave  Laws,  103-4  ;  2  Brevard's  Digest,  233, 
244.  Another  law  of  South  Carolina  provides 
that  if  a  slave  shall,  when  absent  from  the  plan- 
tation, refuse  to  be  examined  by  'any  white  per- 
son,' (no  matter  how  crazy  or  drunk,)  'such  white 
person  may  seize  and  chastise  him  ;  and  if  the 
slave  shall  strike  such  white  person,  such  slave 
may  be  lawfully  killed.' — 2  Brevard's  Digest,  231 

The  following  is  a  law  of  Georgia.  '  If  any 
slave  shall  presume  to  strike  any  white  person,  such 
slave  shall,  upon  trial  and  conviction  before  the 
justice  or  justices,  suffer  such  punishment  for  the 
first  offence  as  they  shall  think  fit,  not  extendmg 
to  life  or  limb ;  and  for  the  second  offence, 
DEATH.' — Prince's  Digest,  450.  The  same  law 
exists  in  South  Carolina,  with  this  difference,  that 
death  is  made  the  punishment  for  the  third 
offence.  In  both  states,  the  law  contains  this 
remarkable  proviso :  '  Provided  always,  that  such 
strikings  be  not  done  by  the  command  and  in  the 
defence  of  the  person  or  property  of  the  owner, 
or  other  person  having  the  government  of  such 
slave,  in  which  case  the  slave  shall  be  wholly  ex- 
cused.'  According  to  this  law,  if  a  slave,  by  the 
direction  of  his  overseer,  strike  a  white  man  who 
is  beating  said  overseer's  dog,  '  the  slave  shall 
be  wholly  excused;'  but  if  the  white  man  has 
rushed  upon  the  slave  himself,  instead  of  the  dog, 
and  is  furiously  beating  him,  if  the  slave  strike 
back  but  a  single  blow,  the  lepal  penalty  is  '  any 
punishment  not  extending  to  life  or  limb  ;'  and  if 
the  tortured  slave  has  a  second  onset  made  upon 
him,  and,  after  suffering  all  but  death,  again 
strike  back  in  self-defence,  the  law  kills  him  for 
it.  So,  if  a  female  slave,  in  obedience  to  her 
mistress,  and  in  defence  of  '  her  property,'  strike 
a  white  man  who  is  kicking  her  mistress*  pet 
kitten,  she  '  shall  be  wholly  excused,'  saith  the 
considerate  law;  but  if  the  unprotected  girl, 
when  beaten  and  kicked  herself,  raise  her  hand 
against  her  brutal  assailant,  the  law  condemns 
her  to  '  any  punishment,  not  extendino  to  life  or 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


143 


Ihnb ;'  and  if  a  wretch  aseajl  her  again,  and  at- 
tempt to  violate  her  cliastity,  and  the  trembling 
girl,  in  her  anguish  and  terror,  instinctively  raise 
her  hand  agaiiist  him  in  self-defence,  she  shall, 
saith  the  law,  '  siiffor  death.' 

Reader,  this  diabolical  law  is  the  '  public  opin- 
ion' of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  toward  the 
slaves.  This  is  the  vaunted  '  protection' afforded 
them  by  their  '  high-souled  chivalry.'  To  show 
that  the  'pnbhc  opinion'  of  the  slave  states  far 
more  effectually  protects  the  property  of  the  mas- 
ter than  the  person  of  the  slave,  the  reader  is  re- 
ferred to  two  laws  of  Louisiana,  passed  in  1819. 
The  one  attaches  a  penalty  '  not  exceeding  one 
thousand  dollars,'  and  *  imprisonment  not  exceed- 
ing two  years,'  to  the  crime  of  '  cutting  or  break- 
ing any  iron  chain  or  collar,'  which  any  master 
of  slaves  has  used  to  prevent  their  running  away  ; 
the  other,  a  penalty  '  iiot  exceeding  five  hundred 
dollars,'  to  '  wilfully  cutting  out  the  tongue,  put- 
ting out  the  eye,  cruelly  burning,  or  depriving 
any  slave  of  any  limb^  Look  at  it— the  most 
horrible  dismemberment  conceivable  cannot  be 
punished  by  a  fine  of  more  than  five  hundred 
dollars.  The  law  expressly  fixes  that,  as  the 
utmost  limit,  and  it  may  not  be  half  that  sum  ; 
not  a  single  moment's  imprisonment  stays  the 
wretch  in  his  career,  and  the  next  hour  he  may 
cut  out  another  slave's  tongue,  or  burn  his  hand 
off.  But  let  the  same  man  break  a  chain  put 
upon  a  slave,  to  keep  him  from  running  away, 
and,  besides  paying  double  the  penalty  that  could 
be  exacted  from  him  for  cutting  off  a  slave's  leg, 
the  law  imprisons  him  not  exceeding  two  years  1 

This  law  reveals  the  heart  of  slaveholders  to- 
wards their  slaves,  their  diabolical  indifference  to 
the  most  excruciating  and  protracted  torments 
inflicted  on  them  by  '  any  person  ;'  it  reveals,  too, 
the  relative  protection  afforded  by  'public  opin. 
ion'  to  the  person  of  the  slave,  in  appalling  con- 
trast with  the  vastly  surer  protection  which  it 
affords  to  the  master's  property  in  the  slave.  The 
wretch  who  cuts  out  the  tongue,  tears  out  the 
eyes,  shoots  off  the  arms,  or  burns  off  the  feet  of 
a  slave,  over  a  slow  fire,  cannot  legally  be  fined 
more  than  five  hundred  dollars  ;  but  if  he  should 
in  pit_v  loose  a  chain  from  his  galled  neck,  placed 
there  by  the  master  to  keep  him  from  escaping, 
and  thus  put  his  property  in  some  jeopardy,  he 
may  be  fined  one  thousand  dollars,  and  thrust  into 
a  dungeon  for  two  years!  and  this,  be  it  remem- 
bered, not  for  stealing  the  slave  from  the  master, 
nor  for  enticing,  or  even  advising  him  to  run 
away,  or  giving  him  any  information  how  he  can 
effect  his  escape;  but  merely,  because,  touched 
with  sympathy  for  the  bleeding  victim,  as  he 
eees  the  rough  iron  chafe  the  torn  fles-h  at  every 
turn,  he  removes  it ; — and,  as  escape  without  this 
incumbrance  would  be  easier  than  with  it,  the 
10 


master's  propwty  in  the  slave  is  put  at  some 
risk.  For  having  caused  this  slight  risk,  the  law 
provides  a  punishment — fine  not  exceeding  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  imprisonment  not  exceed- 
ing two  years.  We  say  '  slight  risk,'  because  the 
slave  may  not  be  disposed  to  encounter  the  dan- 
gers,  and  hunger,  and  other  sufferings  of  the 
woods,  and  the  certainty  of  terrible  inflictions  if 
caught ;  and  if  he  should  attempt  it,  the  risk  of 
losing  him  is  small.  An  advertisement  of  five 
lines  will  set  the  whole  community  howling  on 
his  track  ;  and  the  trembling  and  famished  fugi- 
tive is  soon  scented  out  in  his  retreat,  and  drag- 
ged back  and  delivered  over  to  his  tormentors. 

The  preceding  law  is  another  illustration  of 
the  '  protection'  afforded  to  the  limbs  and  mem- 
bers of  slaves,  by  '  public  opinion'  ^mong  slave- 
holders. 

Here  follow  two  other  illustrations  of  the  bru- 
tal indifference  of  '  public  opinion'  to  the  torments 
of  the  slave,  while  it  is  full  of  zeal  to  compensate 
the  master,  if  any  one  disables  his  slave  so  as  to 
lessen  his  market  value.  The  first  is  a  law  of 
South  Carolina.  It  provides,  that  if  a  slave,  en- 
gaged in  his  owner's  service,  be  attacked  by  a 
person  '  not  having  sufficient  ciusc  for  so  doing,' 
and  if  the  slave  shall  be  '  maimed  or  disabled'  by 
him,  so  that  the  owner  suffers  a  loss  from  his  in- 
ability to  labor,  the  person  maiming  him  shall 
pay  for  his  '  lost  time,'  and  '  also  the  charges  for 
the  cure  of  the  slave !'  This  Vandal  law  does 
not  deign  to  take  the  least  notice  of  the  anguish 
of  the  '  maimed'  slave,  made,  perhaps,  a  groaning 
cripple  for  life  ;  the  horrible  wrong  and  injurv 
done  to  him,  is  passed  over  in  utter  silence.  It 
is  thus  declared  to  be  not  a  criminal  act.  But  the 
pecuniary  interests  of  the  master  are  not  to  be 
thus  neglected  by  '  public  opinion.'  Oh  no  !  its 
tender  bowels  run  over  with  sympathy  at  the 
master's  injury  in  the  '  lost  time'  of  his  slave,  and 
it  carefully  provides  that  he  shall  have  pay  for 
the  whole  of  it.— See  2  Brevard's  Digest,  231,  2. 

A  law  similar  to  the  above  has  been  passed  in 
Louisiana,  which  contains  an  additional  provision 
for  the  benefit  of  the  master — ordaining,  that  '  if 
the  slave'  (thus  maimed  and  disabled,)  '  be  forever 
rendered  unable  to  work,'  the  person  maiming, 
shall  pay  the  master  the  appraised  value  of  the 
slave  before  the  injury,  and  shall,  in  addition, 
take  the  slave,  and  maintain  him  during  life.' 
Thus  '  public  opinion'  transfers  the  helpless  crip- 
ple from  the  hand  of  his  master,  who,  as  he  has 
always  had  the  benefit  of  his  services,  might  pos- 
sibly feel  some  tenderness  for  him,  and  puts  him 
in  the  sole  power  of  the  wretch  who  has  disabled 
him  for  life — protecting  the  victim  from  the  furv 
of  his  tormentor,  by  putting  him  into  his  hands  ! 
What  but  butchery  by  piecemeal  can,  under  such 
circumstances,  be  expected  from  a  man  brutal 


146 


O^ections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


enough  at  first  to  'maim'  and  'disable'  him, 
and  now  exasperated  by  being  obhged  to  pay  his 
full  value  to  the  master,  and  to  have,  in  addition, 
the  daily  care  and  expense  of  his  maintenance. 
Since  writing  the  above,  we  have  seen  the  fol- 
lowing judicial  decision,  in  the  case  ofJourdan, 
vs.  Patton — 5  Martin's  Louisiana  Reports,  615. 
A  slave  of  tlie  plaintiff  had  been  deprived  of  his 
only  eye,  and  thus  rendered  useless,  on  which  ac- 
count the  court  adjudged  that  the  defendant 
should  pay  the  plaintiff  his  full  value.  The  case 
went  up,  by  appeal,  to  the  Supreme  court.  Judge 
Mathews,  in  his  decision  said,  that  '  when  the 
defendant  had  paid  the  sum  decreed,  the  slave 
ought  to  be  placed  in  his  possession,' — adding, 
that  '  the  judgment  making  full  compensation  to 
the  owner  operates  a  change  of  property.'  He 
adds,  '  The  principle  of  humanity  which  would 
lead  us  to  suppose,  that  the  mistress  whom  he 
had  long  served,  would  treat  her  miserable  blind 
slave  with  more  kindness  than  the  defendant  to 
whom  the  judgment  ought  to  transfer  him,  can- 

.NOT    BE     TAKEN      INTO    CONSIDERATION  !'       The    full 

compensation  of  the  mistress  for  the  loss  of  the 
services  of  the  slave,  is  worthy  of  al!  '  considera- 
tion,' even  to  the  uttermost  farthing;  'public 
opinion '  is  omnipotent  for  her  protection  ;  but 
when  the  food,  clothing,  shelter,  fire  and  lodging, 
medicine  and  nursery,  comfort  and  entire  condi- 
tion and  treatment  of  her  poor  blind  slave, 
throughout  his  dreary  pilgrimage,  is  the  question 
— ah  !  that,  says  the  mouth-piece  of  the  law,  and 
the  representative  of  '  public  opinion,'  '  cannot 
BE  TAKEN  INTO  CONSIDERATION.'  Protection  of 
slaves  by  '  pubhc  opinion  '  among  slaveholders  ! ! 
The  foregoing  illustrations  of  southern  '  public 
opinion,'  from  the  laws  made  by  it  and  embody- 
ing it,  are  sufficient  to  show,  that,  so  far  from 
being  an  efficient  protection  to  the  slaves,  it  is 
their  deadliest  foe,  persecutor  and  tormentor. 

But  here  we  shall  probably  be  met  by  the  legal 
lore  of  some  '  Justice  Shallow,'  instructing  us  that 
the  life  of  the  slave  is  fully  protected  by  law, 
however  unprotected  he  may  be  in  other  respects. 
This  assertion  we  meet  with  a  point  blank  denial. 
The  law  does  not,  in  reality,  protect  the  life  of 
the  slave.  But  even  if  the  letter  of  the  law 
would  fully  protect  the  life  of  the  slave,  '  pubhc 
opinion '  in  the  slave  states  would  make  it  a  dead 
letter.  The  letter  of  the  law  would  have  been 
all-sufficient  for  the  protection  of  the  lives  of  the 
miserable  gamblers  in  Vicksburg,  and  other  places 
in  Mississippi,  from  the  rage  of  those  whose  mo- 
ney they  had  won  ;  but  '  gentlemen  of  property 
and  standing '  laughed  the  law  to  scorn,  rushed 
to  the  gamblers!'  house,  put  ropes  round  their 
necks,  dragged  them  through  the  streets,  hanged 
tlicm  in  the  public  square,  and  thus  saved  the 
■«m  they  had  not  yet  paid.     Thousands  witness- 


ed this  wholesale  murder,  yet  of  the  scores  of 
legal  officers  present  not  a  soul  raised  a  finger  to 
prevent  it,  the  whole  city  consented  to  It,  and 
thus  aided  and  abetted  it.  How  many  hundreds 
of  them  helped  to  commit  the  murders,  tcith  their 
oicn  hands,  does  not  appear,  but  not  one  of  them 
has  been  indicted  for  it,  and  no  one  made  the 
least  cffi)rt  to  bring  them  to  trial.  Thus,  up  to 
the  present  hour,  the  blood  of  those  murdered 
men  rests  on  that  whole  city,  and  it  will  continue 
to  be  a  CITY  of  murderers,  so  long  as  its  citizens 
agree  together  to  shield  those  felons  from  punish- 
ment ;  and  they  do  thus  agree  together  so  long  as 
they  encourage  each  other  in  relusing  to  bring 
them  to  justice.  Now,  the  laws  of  Missi.ssippi 
were  not  in  fault  that  those  men  were  murdered  ; 
nor  are  they  now  in  fault,  that  their  murderers  are 
not  punished  ;  the  laws  demand  it,  but  the  people 
of  Mississippi,  the  legal  officers,  the  grand  juries 
and  legislature  of  the  state,  with  one  consent  agree, 
that  the  law  shall  he  a  dead  letter,  and  thus  the 
whole  state  assumes  the  guilt  of  those  murders, 
and  in  bravado,  flourishes  her  reeking  hands  in 
the  face  of  the  world.* 

The  letter  of  the  law  on  the  statute  book  is  one 
thing,  the  practice  of  the  community  under  that 
law  often  a  totally  different  thing.  Each  of  the 
slave  states  has  laws  providing  that  the  life  of  no 
white  man  shall  be  taken  without  his  having  first 
been  indicted  by  a  grand  jury,  allowed  an  impar- 
tial trial  by  a  petit  jury,  with  the  right  of  counsel, 
cross-examination  of  witnesses,  &c. ;  but  v/ho 
does  not  know  that  if  Arthur  Tappan  were 
pointed  out  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans,  Mo- 
bile.  Savannah,  Charleston,  Natchez,  or  St.  Louis, 
he  would  be  torn  in  pieces  by  the  citizens  with 
one  accord,  and  that  if  any  one  should  attempt  to 
bring  his  murderers  to  punishment,  he  would  be 
torn  in  pieces  also.  The  editors  of  southern 
newspapers  openly  vaunt,  that  every  abolitionist 
Vtfho  sets  foot  in  their  soil,  shall,  if  he  be  disco- 
vered, be  hung  at  once,  without  judge  or  jury. 
What  mockery  to  quote  the  letter  of  the  law  in 
those  states,  to  show  that  abolitionists  would 
have  secured  to  them  the  legal  protection  of  an 
impartial  trial ! 

Before  the  objector  can  make  out  his  case,  that 
the  life  of  the  slave  is  protected  by  the  law,  he 
must  not  only  show  that   the  words  of  the  late 

*  We  have  just  learned  from  Mississippi  papers,  that  th» 
citizens  of  Vicksburg  are  erecting  a  public  moiuiment  in  ho- 
nor of  Dr.  H.  S.  Bodley,  who  was  the  rinp-leadejr  of  tha 
Lynchers,  in  their  attack  upon  their  miserable  victims. 
To  !;ivc  to  crime  tlie  cold  encouraffenvnt  of  impunity 
alone,  or  such  slight  tokens  of  favor  as  a  home  and  a  sane 
tuary,  is  beneath  the  chivalry  and  hospitality  of  Missisiip 
plans ;  so  Uiey  tender  it  incense,  an  altar,  and  a  crown  of 
glory.  Let  the  marble  rise  till  it  be  seen  from  afar,  a  bea 
con  marking  the  si)ot  where  law  lies  lifeless  by  the  hand  of 
felons ;  and  murderers,  with  chaplets  on  tlieir  heads,  doKM 
and  shout  upon  itsgrave,  while  '  all  the  people  say,  omeB.' 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


147 


grant  him  such  protection,  but  that  such  a  state 
of  pubhc  sentiment  exi  sts  as  will  carry  out    the 
provisions  of  the  law  in  their  true  spirit.     Any 
thing  short  of  this  will  be  set  down  as  mere  prat- 
ing by  every  man  of  common  sense.     It  has  been 
already  abundantly  shown  in  the  preceding  pages, 
that  the   public  sentiment   of  the    slavebolding 
states  toward  the  slaves  is  diabolical.     Now,  if 
tliere  were   laws    in  those   states,   the    words  of 
wiiich  granted   to  the  life  of  the  slave  the  same 
protection  granted  to  that  of  the  master,  what 
would  they  avail  ?     Acts  constitute  protection  ; 
and   is  that  public  sentiment  which   makes  the 
slave   '  property,'  and  perpetrates  hourly  robbery 
and   batteries    upon  him,    so  penetrated  with    a 
sense  of  the  sacredness  of  his  right  to  life,  that  it 
will  protect  it  at  all  hazards,  and  drag  to  the  gal- 
lows  his  OWNER,  if  he  take  the  life  of  his  own 
property  ?     If  it  be   asked,  why   the  penalty  for 
killing  a  slave  is  not  a  mere  fine  then,  if  his  life  is 
not  really  regarded  as  sacred  by  public  sentiment 
— we  answer,  that  formerly  in  most,  if  not  in  all 
tlie  slave    slates,  the  murder  of  a  slave  was  pun- 
ished by  a  mere  fine.     This  was  the  case  in  South 
Carolina  till  a   few  years  since.     Yes,  as  late  as 
1821,  in  the  state  of  South  Carolina,  which  boasts 
of  its  chivalry  and  honor,  at  least  as  loudly  as  any 
state  in  the  Union,  a  slaveholder  might  butcher 
his  slave  in  the  most  deliberate  manner — with  the 
most  barbarous  and  protracted  torments,  and  yet 
not  be  subjected  to  a  single  hour's  imprisonment — 
pay  his  fine,  stride  out  of  the  court  and  kill  another 
— pay  his  fine  again  and  butcher  another,  and  so 
long  as  he  paid  to  the  state,  cash  down,  its  own 
assessment  of  damages,  without  putt'ng  it  to  the 
trouble  of  prosecuting  for  it,  he    might  strut '  a 
gentleman.' — See  2  Brevard's  Digest,  241. 

The  reason  assigned  by  the  legislature  for  en- 
acting a  law  which  punished  the  wilful  murder 
of  a  human  being  by  a.  fine,  was  that '  cruelty  is 
HIGHLY  UNBECOMING,'  and  'ODIOUS.'  It  was  doubt- 
leas  the  same  reason  that  induced  the  legislature 
in  1821,  to  make  a  show  of  giving  more  protec- 
tion to  the  life  of  the  slave.  Their  fathers,  when 
they  gave  some  protection,  did  it  because  the  time 
had  come  when,  not  to  do  it  would  make  them 
'  ODIOUS.'  So  the  legislature  of  1821  made  a 
show  of  giving  still  greater  protection,  because, 
not  to  do  it  would  make  them  '  odious.'  Fitly 
did  they  wear  the  mantles  of  their  ascending 
fathers !  In  giving  to  the  life  of  a  slave  the  mis- 
erable protection  of  a  fine,  their  fathers  did  not 
even  pretend  to  do  it  out  of  any  regard  to  the  sa- 
credness of  his  life  as  a  human  being,  but  merely 
because  cruelty  is  'unbecoming'  and  'odious.' 
The  legislature  of  1821  nominally  increased  this 
protection  ;  not  that  they  cared  more  for  the 
slave's  rights,  or  for  the  inviolabity  of  his  life  as  a 
buman   being,  but  the   civilized  world  had  ad- 


vanced since  the  date  of  the  first  law.  The 
slave-trade  which  was  then  honorable  merchan- 
dise,  and  plied  by  lords,  governors,  judges,  and 
doctors  of  divinity,  raising  them  to  immense 
wealth,  had  grown  '  unbecoming,'  and  only  raised 
its  votaries  by  a  rope  to  the  yard  arm  ;  beside* 
this,  the  barbarity  of  the  slave  codes  throughout 
the  world  was  fast  becoming  '  odious  '  to  civilized 
nations,  and  slaveholders  found  that  the  only  con- 
ditions on  which  they  could  prevent  themselves 
from  being  thrust  out  of  the  pale  of  civilization, 
was  to  meliorate  the  iron  rigor  of  their  slave  code, 
and  thus  seem  to  secure  to  their  slaves  some  pro- 
tection. Further,  the  northern  states  had  passed 
laws  for  the  abolition  of  slavery — all  the  South 
American  states  were  acting  in  the  matter  ;  and 
Colombia  and  Chili  passed  acts  of  abolition  that 
very  year.  In  addition  to  all  this  the  Missouri 
question  had  been  for  two  years  previous  under 
discussion  in  Congress,  in  State  legislatures,  and 
in  every  village  and  stage  coach  ;  and  this  law  of 
South  Carolina  had  been  held  up  to  execration  by 
northern  members  of  Congress,  and  in  newspa- 
pers throughout  the  free  states — in  a  word,  the 
legislature  of  South  Carolina  found  that  they 
were  becoming  '  odious  ;'  and  while  in  their  sense 
of  justice  and  humanity  they  did  not  surpass  their 
fathers,  they  winced  with  equal  sensitiveness 
under  the  sting  of  the  world's  scorn,  and  with 
equal  promptitude  sued  for  a  truce  by  modifying 
the  law. 

The  legislature  of  South  Carolina  modified  an- 
other law  at  the  same  session.  Previously,  the 
killing  of  a  slave  '  on  a  sudden  heat  or  passion,  or 
by  undue  correction,'  was  punished  by  a  fine  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  In  1821  an  act 
was  passed  diminishing  the  fine  to  five  hundred 
dollars,  but  authorizing  an  imprisonment  '  not  ex- 
ceeding six  months.'  Just  before  the  American 
Revolution,  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina 
passed  a  law  making  imprisonment  the  penalty 
for  the  wilful  and  malicious  murder  of  a  slave. 
About  twenty  years  after  the  revolution,  the  state 
found  itself  becoming  '  odious,'  as  the  spirit  of 
abolition  was  pervading  the  nations.  The  legisla- 
ture, perceiving  that  Christendom  would  before 
long  rank  them  with  barbarians  if  they  so  cheap- 
ened huraan  life,  repealed  the  law,  candidly  as. 
signing  in  the  preamble  of  the  new  one  the  rea- 
son for  repealing  the  old — that  it  was  '  disgrace- 
ful' and  'degrading.'  As  this  preamble  ex. 
pressly  recognizes  the  slave  as  '  a  human  erea. 
tare,'  and  as  it  is  couched  in  a  phraseology  which 
indicates  some  sense  of  justice,  we  would  gladly 
give  the  legislature  credit  for  sincerity,  and  be- 
lieve them  really  touched  with  humane  movings 
towards  the  slave,  were  it  not  for  a  proviso  in  the 
law  clearly  revealing  that  the  show  of  humanity 
and   regard  for  their  rights,  indicated  by  the 


143 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


words,  is  nothing  more  than  a  hollow  pretence — 
a  hypocritical  flourish  to  produce  an  impression 
favorable  to  their  justice  and  magnanimity.  Af- 
ter declaring  that  he  who  is  '  guilty  of  wilfully 
and  maliciously  killing  a  slave,  shall  suffer  the 
same  punishment  as  if  he  had  killed  a  freeman  ;' 
the  act  concludes  thus  :  '  Provided,  always,  this 
act  shall  not  extend  to  the  person  killing  a  slave 
outlawed  by  virtue  of  any  act  of  Assembly  of 
this  state  ;  or  to  any  slave  in  the  act  of  resistance 
to  his  lawful  overseer,  or  master,  or  to  any  slave 
dying  under  their  moderate  correction?  Reader, 
look  at  this  proviso.  1.  It  gives  free  license  to  all 
persons  to  kill  outlawed  slaves.  Well,  what  is 
an  outlawed  slave  ?  A  slave  who  runs  away, 
lurks  in  swamps,  &c.,  and  kills  a  hog  or  any 
other  domestic  animal  to  keep  himself  from  starv- 
ing, is  subject  to  a  proclamation  of  outlawry ; 
(Haywood's  Manual,  521,)  and  then  whoever 
finds  him  may  shoot  him,  tear  him  in  pieces  with 
dogs,  burn  him  to  death  over  a  slow  fire,  or  kill 
him  by  any  other  tortures.  2.  The  proviso  grants 
full  license  to  a  master  to  kill  his  slave,  if  the 
slave  resist  him.  The  North  Carolina  Bench  has 
decided  that  this  law  contemplates  not  only  ac- 
tual  resistance  to  punishment,  «fec.,  but  also  offer, 
ing  to  resist.  (Stroud's  Sketch,  37.)  If,  for  ex- 
ample,  a  slave  undergoing  the  process  of  branding 
Bhould  resist  by  pushing  aside  the  burning  stamp; 
or  if  wrought  up  to  frenzy  by  the  torture  of  the 
lash,  he  should  catch  and  hold  it  fast ;  or  if  he 
break  loose  from  his  master  and  run,  refusing  to 
stop  at  his  command  ;  or  if  he  refuse  to  be  flog- 
ged ;  or  struggle  to  keep  his  clothes  on  while  his 
master  is  trying  to  strip  him  ;  if,  in  all  these,  or 
any  one  of  the  hundred  other  ways  he  resist,  or 
offer,  or  threaten  to  resist  the  infliction  ;  or,  if  the 
master  attempt  the  violation  of  the  slave's  wife, 
and  the  husband  resist  his  attempts  without  the 
least  effort  to  injure  him,  but  merely  to  shield  his 
wife  from  his  assaults,  this  law  docs  not  merely 
permit,  but  it  authorizes  the  master  to  murder  the 
slave  on  the  spot. 

The  brutality  of  tlicse  two  provisos  brands  its 
authors  as  barbarians.  But  the  third  cause  of  ex- 
emption could  not  be  outdone  by  the  legislation 
of  fiends.  'Dying  under  moderate  correction." 
Moderate  correction  and  death — cause  and  effect! 
'  Provided  always,'  says  the  law,  '  this  act  shall 
not  extend  to  any  slave  dying  under  modp.rate 
correction ."  Here  is  a  formal  proclamation  of 
impunity  to  murder — an  express  pledge  ofacquil- 
tal  to  all  slaveholders  who  wish  to  murder  their 
slaves,  a  legal  absolution — an  indulgence  granted 
before  the  commission  of  the  crime  !  Look  at 
the  phraseology.  Nothing  is  said  of  maimings, 
dismemberments,  skull  fractures,  of  severe  bruis- 
mgs,  or  lacerations,  or  even  of  floggings;  but  a 
word  ifi  used    the   common-parlance  import  of 


which  is,  slight  chastisement ;  it  is  not  even  whip, 
ping,  but  '  correction.'  And  as  if  hypocrisy  and 
malignity  were  on  the  rack  to  outwit  each  other, 
even  that  weak  word  must  be  still  farther  diluted  ; 
80  'moderate'  is  added:  and,  to  crown  the  cli. 
max.  compounded  of  absurdity,  hypocrisy,  and 
CO  Id-blooded  murder,  the  legal  definition  of  '  mo- 
derate correction'  is  covertly  given  ;  which  is, 
any  punishment  that  kills  the  victim.  All  in. 
flictions  are  cither  moderate  or  immoderate ;  and 
the  design  of  this  law  was  manifestly  to  shield 
the  murderer  from  conviction,  by  carrying  on  its 
face  the  rule  for  its  own  interpretation ;  thus  ad- 
vertising, beforehand,  courts  and  juries,  that  the 
fact  of  any  infliction  producing  death,  was  no  evi- 
dence that  it  was  immoderate,  and  that  beating  a 
man  to  death  came  within  the  legal  meaning  of 
'  moderate  correction  !'  The  design  of  the-legis- 
lature  of  North  Carolina  in  framing  this  law  is 
manifest ;  it  was  to  produce  the  impression  upon 
the  world,  that  they  had  so  high  a  sense  of  justice 
as  voluntarily  to  grant  adequate  protection  to  the 
lives  of  their  slaves.  This  is  ostentatiously  set 
forth  in  the  preamble,  and  in  the  body  of  the  law. 
That  this  was  the  most  despicable  hypocrisy,  and 
that  they  had  predetermined  to  grant  no  such  pro- 
tection, notwithstanding  the  pains  taken  to  get  the 
credit  of  it,  is  fully  revealed  by  the  proviso,  which 
was  framed  in  such  a  way  as  to  nullify  the  law, 
for  the  express  accommodation  of  slaveholding 
gentlemen  murdering  their  slaves.  All  such  find 
in  this  proviso  a  convenient  accomplice  before  the 
fact,  and  a  packed  jury,  with  a  ready-made  ver- 
dict of  '  not  guilt)','  both  gratuitously  furnished 
by  the  government !  The  preceding  law  and  pro. 
viso  are  to  be  found  in  Haywood's  Manual,  .530 ; 
also  in  Laws  of  Tennessee,  Act  of  October  23, 
1791 ;  and  in  Stroud's  Sketch,  37. 

Enough  has  been  said  already  to  show,  that 
though  the  laws  of  the  slave  states  profess  to  grant 
adequate  protection  to  the  life  of  the  slave,  such 
professions  are  mere  empty  pretence,  no  such  pro- 
tection being  in  reality  aflorded  by  them.  But 
there  is  still  another  fact,  showing  that  all  laws 
which  profess  to  protect  the  slaves  from  injury  by 
the  whites  are  a  mockery.  It  is  this — that  tlic 
testimony,  neither  of  a  slave  nor  of  a  free  colored 
person,  is  legal  testimony  against  a  white.  To 
tliis  rule  there  is  no  exception  in  any  of  the  slave 
states :  and  this,  were  there  no  other  evidence, 
would  be  sufficient  to  stamp,  as  hypocritical,  all 
the  provisions  of  the  codes  which  profess  to  pro- 
tect  the  slaves.  Professing  to  grant  protection, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  strips  them  of  the  only 
means  by  which  they  can  make  that  protection 
available '.  Injuries  must  be  legally  praised  before 
they  can  be  legally  redressed :  to  deprive  men  of 
the  power  of  proving  their  injuries,  is  itself  the 
greatest  of  all  injuries ;  for  it  not  only  exposes  to 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


149 


ail,  but  invites  them,  by  a  virtual  guarantee  of 
impunity,  and  is  thus  the  author  of  all  injuries. 
It  matters  not  what  other  laws  exist,  professing 
to  throw  safeguards  round  the  slave — this  makes 
them  blank  paper.  How  can  a  slave  prove  out. 
rages  perpetrated  upon  him  by  his  master  or  over- 
seer, when  his  own  testimony  and  that  of  all  his 
fellow-slaves,  his  kindred,  associates,  and  ac- 
quaintances, are  ruled  out  of  court  ?  and  when  he 
i?  entirely  in  the  power  of  those  who  injure  him, 
ana  when  the  only  care  necessary,  on  their  part, 
is,  to  see  that  no  tohite  witness  is  looking  on.  Or- 
dinarily, but  one  white  man,  the  overseer,  is  with 
the  slaves  while  they  are  at  labor;  indeed,  on 
most  plantations,  to  commit  an  outrage  in  the 
presence  of  a  white  witness  would  be  more  difK- 
cult  than  in  their  absence.  He  who  wished  to 
commit  an  illegal  act  upon  a  slave,  instead  of  be- 
ing obliged  to  take  pains  and  watch  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  do  it  unobserved  by  a  white,  would  find 
;t  difficult  to  do  it  in  the  presence  of  a  white  if  he 
wished  to  do  so.  The  supreme  court  of  Louisi- 
ana, in  their  decision,  in  the  case  of  Crawford  vs. 
Cherry,  15,  {Martin's  La.  Rep.  142 ;  also  "  Laic 
of  Slavery  "  249,)  where  the  defendant  was  sued 
for  the  value  of  a  slave  whom  he  had  shot  and 
killed,  say,  "  The  act  charged  here,  is  one  rarely 
committed  in  the  presence  of  icitnesses"  (whites). 
So  in  the  case  of  the  State  vs.  Mann,  (Devereux, 
N.  C.  Rep.  263 ;  and  "  Latv  of  Slavery,"  247 ;)  in 
which  the  defendant  was  charged  with  shooting 
a  slave  girl  '  belonging'  to  the  plaintiff;  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  North  Carolina,  in  their  decision, 
speaking  of  the  provocations  of  the  master  by  the 
slave,  and  '  the  consequent  wrath  of  the  master 
prompting  him  to  bloody  vengeance,  add,  '^a  ven- 
geance generally  practised  with  iinpunity,  by  rea- 
son of  its  privacy.' 

Laws  excluding  the  testimony  of  slaves  and 
free  colored  persons,  where  a  white  is  concerned, 
do  not  exist  in  all  the  slave  states.  One  or  two 
of  them  have  no  legal  enactment  on  the  subject ; 
but,  in  those,  '  public  opinion'  acts  with  the  force 
of  law,  and  the  courts  invariably  reject  it.  This 
brings  us  back  to  the  potency  of  that  oft-quoted 
'  public  opinion,'  so  ready,  according  to  our  ob- 
jector, to  do  battle  for  the  protection  of  the  slave ! 
Another  proof  that  'public  opinion,'  in  the 
slave  states,  plunders,  tortures,  and  murders  the 
slaves,  instead  oi  protecting  them,  is  found  in  the 
fact,  that  the  laws  of  slave  states  inflict  capital 
punishment  on  slaves  for  a  variety  of  crimes,  for 
which,  if  their  masters  commit  them,  the  legal 
penalty  is  merely  imprisonment.  Judge  Stroud, 
in  his  Sketch  of  the  Laws  of  Slavery,  says,  that, 
by  the  laws  of  Virginia,  there  are  '  seventy-one 
crimes  for  which  slaves  are  capitally  punished, 
though  in  none  of  these  are  whites  punished  in  a 
manner  more  severe  than  by  imprisonment  in  the 


penitentiary.'  (P.  107,  where  the  reader  will  find 
all  the  crimes  enumerated.)  It  should  be  added, 
however,  that  though  the  penalty  for  each  of  these 
seventy. one  crimes  is  '  death,'  yet  a  majority  of 
them  are,  in  the  words  of  the  law,  '  death  with. 
in  clergy ;'  and  in  Virginia,  clergyable  offences, 
though  technically  capital,  are  not  so  in  fact.  In 
Mississippi,  slaves  are  punished  capitally  for  more 
than  thirty  crimes,  for  which  wliites  are  punished 
only  by  fine  or  imprisonment,  or  both.  Eight  of 
these  are  not  recognized  as  crimes,  either  by  com- 
mon law  or  by  statute,  when  committed  by 
whites.  In  South  Carolina  slaves  are  punished 
capitally  for  nine  more  crimes  than  the  whites — 
in  Georgia,  for  six — and  in  Kentucky,  for  seven 
more  than  whites,  &c.  We  surely  need  not  de. 
tain  the  reader  by  comments  on  this  monstrous 
inequality  with  which  the  penal  codes  of  slave 
states  treat  slaves  and  their  masters.  When  we 
consider  that  guilt  is  in  proportion  to  intelligence, 
and  that  these  masters  have  by  law  doomed  their 
slaves  to  ignorance,  and  then,  as  they  darkle  and 
grope  along  their  blind  way,  inflict  penalties  upon 
them  for  a  variety  of  acts  regarded  as  praise- 
worthy in  whites;  killing  them  for  crimes, 
when  whites  are  only  fined  or  imprisoned — to  call 
such  a  '  public  opinion'  inhuman,  savage,  mur- 
dei-ous,  diabolical,  would  be  to  use  tame  words,  if 
.theEnglish  vocabulary  could  supply  others  of  more 
horrible  import. 

But  slaveholding  brutality  does  not  stop  here. 
While  punishing  the  slaves  for  crimes  with  vastly 
greater  severity  than  it  does  their  masters  for  the 
same  crimes,  and  making  a  variety  of  acts  crimes 
in  law,  which  are  right,  and  often  duties,  it  per- 
sists in  refusing  to  make  known  to  the  slaves  that 
complicated  and  barbarous  penal  code  which 
loads  them  with  such  fearful  liabilities.  The  slave 
is  left  to  get  a  knowledge  of  these  laws  as  he  can, 
and  cases  must  be  of  constant  occurrence  at  the 
south,  in  which  slaves  get  their  first  knowledge 
of  the  existence  of  a  law  by  suffering  its  penalty. 
Indeed,  this  is  probably  the  way  in  which  they 
commonly  learn  what  the  laws  are  ;  for  how  else 
can  the  slave  get  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  ?  He 
cannot  read  — he  cannot  learn  to  read  ;  if  he  try 
to  master  the  alphabet,  so  that  he  may  spell  out 
the  words  of  the  law,  and  thus  avoid  its  penalties, 
the  law  shakes  its  terrors  at  him  ;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  those  who  made  the  laws  refuse  to 
make  them  known  to  those  for  whom  they  are  de- 
signed. The  memory  of  Caligula  will  blacken 
with  execration  while  time  lasts,  because  he  hung 
up  his  laws  so  high  that  people  could  not  read 
them,  and  then  punished  them  because  they  did 
not  keep  them.  Our  slaveholders  aspire  to  blacker 
infamy.  Caligula  was  content  with  hanging  up 
his  laws  where  his  subjects  could  see  them  ;  and 
if  they  could  not  read  them,  they  knew  where 


150 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


they  were,  and  mi^ht  get  at  them,  if,  in  their  zeal 
to  learn  his  will,  they  had  used  the  same  means 
to  get  up  to  them  that  those  did  who  hung  them 
there.  Even  Caligula,  wretch  as  he  was,  would 
have  shuddered  at  cutting  their  legs  off,  to  pre- 
vent their  climbing  to  them  ;  or,  if  they  had  got 
there,  at  boring  their  eyes  out,  to  prevent  their 
reading  them.  Our  slavcliolders  virtually  do 
both  ;  for  they  ]>rohibit  their  slaves  acquiring  that 
knowledge  of  letters  which  would  enable  them  to 
read  the  laws  ;  and  if,  by  stealth,  they  get  it  in 
spite  of  thim,  they  prohibit  them  books  and  pa- 
pers, and  flog  them  if  they  are  caught  at  them. 
Further — Caligula  merely  hung  his  laws  so  high 
that  they  could  not  be  read — our  slaveholders 
have  hung  theirs  so  high  above  the  slave  that 
they  cannot  be  seen — they  are  utterly  out  of  sight, 
and  he  finds  out  that  they  arc  there  only  by  the 
falling  of  the  penalties  on  his  head.*  Thus  the 
"  public  opinion"  of  slave  states  protects  the  de- 
fenceless slave  by  arming  a  host  of  legal  penal- 
ties and  setting  them  in  ambush  at  every  thicket 
along  his  path,  to  spring  upon  him  unawares. 

Stroud,  in  his  Sketch  of  the  Laws  of  Slavery, 
page  100,  thus  comments  on  this  monstrous  bar- 
barity. 

"The hardened  convict  moves  their  sympathy, 
and  is  to  bo  taught  the  laws  before  he  is  expected 
to  obey  them  :t  yet  the  guiltless  slave  is  subjected 
to  an  extensive  system  of  cruel  enactments,  of  no 
part  of  which,  probably,  has  he  ever  heard." 

Having  already  drawn  so  largely  on  tlie  read- 
er's patience,  in  illustrating  southern  '  public  opi- 
nion' by  the  slave  laws,  instead  of  additional  illus- 
trations of  the  same  point  from  another  class  of 
tliose  laws,  as  was  our  design,  we  will  group  toge- 
ther a  few  particulars,  which  the  reader  can  take 
in  at  a  glance,  showing  that  the  "  public  opinion" 
of  slaveholders  towards  their  slaves,  which  exists  at 

*  The  following  extract  from  the  Alexandria  (D.  C.)  Ga- 
zette is  an  illustration.  "Criminals  Condemned. — On 
Monday  lust  the  Court  of  the  borouph  of  Norfolk,  Va.  sat 
on  the  trial  of  four  nepro  boys  arraigned  for  burglary.  The 
first  indictment  charged  them  witli  breaking  into  the  hard- 
ware store  of  Mr.  E.  I*.  Tabb,  upon  which  two  of  them  were 
found  guilty  by  the  Court,  and  condemned  to  suffer  the 
penalty  of  the  law,  which,  in  the  case  of  a  slave,  is  death. 
Tiie  second  Friday  in  April  is  appointed  for  the  execution 
of  their  awful  sentence.  Their  ag-es  do  not  exceed  sixteen. 
The  first,  a  fine  active  boy,  belongs  to  a  w/dow  lady  in  Al- 
exandria :  the  latter,  a  house  servant,  is  owned  by  a  gentle- 
man in  the  borough.  The  value  of  one  was  fi,xed  at  f  1000, 
and  the  other  at  $800  ;  wliich  sums  are  to  be  reimbursed 
to  their  respective  ownersout  of  the  state  treasury."  In  all 
probability  these  poor  boys,  who  are  to  be  hung  for  stealing, 
nevi^r  dreamed  that  death  was  the  legal  penalty  of  the  crime. 

Here  is  another,  from  the  "  New  Orleans  Bee"  of 14. 

1837. — "Tlie  slave  who  strtck  some  citizens  in  Canal- 
street,  some  weeks  since,  has  been  tried  and  found  guilty, 
and  is  sentenced  to  be  htno  on  the  24th. 

t  "  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  keeper  [of  the  penitentiary] 
on  the  receipt  of  each  prisoner,  to  re nrf  to  him  or  her  such 
parts  of  the  penal  laws  of  this  state  as  impose  pezialties  for 
CKcape,  and  to  make  all  the  prisoni  rs  in  tlii'  piiiitentiary 
ac(|uainted  with  tlie  same.  It  shall  also  be  his  'liity,  on  the 
discharge  of  such  prisoner,  to  read  to  him  or  In;  such  parts 
of  till'  said  laws  as  impose  additional  pnnishrnrnts  for  the 
repetitiiiii  of  dtriiices." — Rule  Yith,for  the  internal  govern- 
ment of  the  Pcnilevtiani  of  (feorffia.  See  2(J  of  the  Peni- 
tentiary Act  of  1810.— Prince's  Digest,  380. 


the  south,  in  the  form  of  law,  tramples  on  all  those 
fundamental  principles  of  right,  justice,  and  equity, 
which  are  recognized  as  sacred  by  all  civilized  na- 
tions,  and  receive  the  homage  even  of  barbarians. 

1.  One  of  these  principles  is,  that  the  benefits 
of  law  to  the  subject  should  overbalance  its  bur- 
dens— its  protection  more  than  compensate  for  its 
restraints  and  exactions — and  its  blessings  alto- 
gether outweigh  its  inconveniences  and  evils — 
the  former  being  numerous,  positive,  and  perma- 
nent, the  latter  few,  negative,  and  incidental.  To- 
tally the  reverse  of  all  this  is  true  in  the  case  of 
the  slave.  Law  is  to  him  all  exaction  and  no  pro- 
tection :  instead  of  lightening  his  na/«raZ  burdens, 
it  crushes  him  under  a  multitude  of  artificial  ones; 
Instead  of  a  friend  to  succor  him,  it  is  his  deadliest 
foe,  transfixing  him  at  every  step  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave.  Law  has  been  beautifully  defined 
to  be  "  benevolence  acting  by  rule  ;"  to  the  Ame- 
rican slave  it  is  malevolence  torturing  by  system. 
It  is  an  old  truth,  that  responsibility  increases 
with  capacity  ;  but  those  same  laws  which  make 
the  slave  a  "  chattel,''^  require  of  him  more  than 
of  men.  The  same  law  which  makes  him  a  thing 
incapable  of  obligation,  loads  him  with  obligations 
superhuman — while  sinking  him  below  the  level  of 
a  brute  in  dispensing  its  benefits,  he  lays  upon  him 
burdens  which  would  break  down  an  angel. 

2.  Innocence  is  entitled  to  the  protection  of  law. 
Slaveholders  make  innocence  free  plunder ;  this 
is  their  daily  employment  ;  their  laws  assail  it, 
iTiake  it  their  victim,  inflict  upon  it  all,  and,  in 
some  respects,  more  than  all  the  penalties  of  the 
greatest  guilt.  To  other  innocent  persons,  law 
is  a  blessing,  to  the  slave  it  is  a  curse,  only  a 
curse  and  that  continually. 

3.  Deprivation  of  liberty  is  one  of  the  highest 
punishments  of  crime  ;  and  in  proportion  to  its 
justice  when  inflicted  on  the  guilty,  is  its  injus- 
tice when  inflicted  on  the  innocent  ;  this  terrible 
penalty  is  inflicted  on  two  million  seven  hundred 
thousand,  innocent  persons  in  the  Southern  states. 

4.  Self-preservation  and  self-defence,  are  uni. 
vcrsally  regarded  as  the  most  sacred  of  human 
rights,  yet  the  laws  of  slave  states  punish  the 
slave  with  death  for  exercising  these  rights  in 
that  way,  which  in  others  is  pronounced  worthy 
of  the  highest  praise. 

5.  The  safe-guards  of  law  are  most  needed 
where  natural  safe-guards  are  weakest.  Every 
principle  of  justice  and  equitj'  requires,  that,  tho.se 
who  are  totally  unprotected  by  birth,  station, 
wealth,  friends,  influence,  and  popular  favor, 
and  especially  those  who  are  the  innocent  objects 
of  public  contempt  and  prejudice,  should  be 
more  vigilantly  protected  by  law,  than  those  who 
are  so  fortified  by  defence,  that  they  have  far  less 
need  of  legal  protection  ;  yet  the  poor  slave  who 
is  fortified  by  none  of  these  personal  bulwarks,  is 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


151 


denied  the  protection  of  law,   while  the  master,  ', 
surrounded  by  them  all,  is  panoplied  in  the  mail 
of  legal  protection,  even  to  the  hair  of  his  head  ; 
yea,  his  very  shoe-tic  and  coat-button  are    legal 
protegees. 

6.  The  grand  object  of  law  is  to  protect  meiVs 
natural  rights,  but  instead  of  protecting  the 
natural  rights  of  the  slaves,  it  gives  slaveholders 
license  to  wrest  them  from  the  weak  by  violence, 
protects  them  in  holding  their  plunder,  and  kills 
the  rightful  owner  if  he  attempt  to  recover  it. 

This  is  the  protection  thrown  around  the  rights 
of  American  slaves  by  the  '  public  opinion,'  of 
slaveholders  ;  these  the  restraints  that  hold  back 
their  masters,  overseers,  and  drivers,  from  in- 
flicting injuries  upon  them  I 

In  a  Republican  government,  law  is  the  pulse 
of  its  heart  — as  the  heart  beats  the  pulse  beats,  ex- 
cept that  it  often  beats  weaker  than  the  heart, 
never  stronger — or  to  drop  the  figure,  laws  are 
never  worse  than  those  who  make  them,  very 
often  better.  If  human  history  proves  any. 
thing,  cruelty  of  practice  will  always  go  beyond 
cruelty  of  law. 

Law-making  is  a  formal,  deliberate  act,  per- 
formed by  persons  of  mature  age,  embodying  the 
intelligence,  wisdom,  justice  and  liumanity,  of 
the  community ;  performed,  too,  at  leisure,  after 
full  opportunity  had  for  a  comprehensive  survey 
of  all  the  relations  to  be  affected,  after  careful 
investigation  and  protracted  discussion.  Conse- 
quently laws  must,  in  the  main,  be  a  true  index 
of  the  permanent  feelings,  the  settled  frame  of 
mind,  cherished  by  the  community  upon  those 
subjects,  and  towards  those  persons  and  classes 
whose  condition  the  laws  are  designed  to  estab- 
lish. If  the  laws  are  in  a  high  degree  cruel  and 
inhuman,  towards  any  class  of  persons,  it  proves 
that  the  feelings  habitually  exercised  towards 
that  class  of  persons,  by  those  who  make  and 
perpetuate  those  laws,  are  at  least  equally  cruel 
and  inhuman.  We  say  at  least  equally  so  ;  for 
if  the  habitual  state  of  feeling  towards  that  class 
be  unmerciful,  it  must  be  unspeakably  cruel,  re- 
lentless and  malignant  when  provoked  ;  if  its 
ordinary  action  is  inhuman,  its  contortions  and 
spasms  must  be  tragedies  ;  if  the  waves  run  high 
-when  there  has  been  no  wind,  where  will  they 
not  break  when  the  tempest  heaves  them  ! 

Further,  when  cruelty  is  the  spirit  of  the  law 
towards  a  proscribed  class,  when  it  legalizes  great 
outrages  upon  them,  it  connives  at,  and  abets 
greater  outrages,  and  is  virtually  an  accomplice 
of  all  who  perpetrate  them.  Hence,  in  such 
cases,  though  the  degree  of  the  outrage  is  illegal, 
the  perpetrator  will  rarely  be  convicted,  and,  even 
if  convicted,  will  be  almost  sure  to  escape  pun- 
ishment. This  is  not  theory  but  history.  Every 
judge  and  lawyer  in  the  slave  states  knows,  that 


the  legal  conviction  and  punishment  of  masters 
and  mistresseSjfor  illegal  outrages  upon  their  slaves, 
is  an  event  which  has  rarely,  if  ever,  occurred 
in  the  slave  st'ates  ;  they  know,  also,  that  although 
hundreds  of  slaves  have  been  murdered  by  their 
masters  and  mistresses  in  the  slave  states,  within 
the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  though  the  fact  of 
their  having  committed  those  murders  has  been 
established  beyond  a  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the 
surrounding  community,  yet  that  the  murderers 
have  not,  in  a  single  instance,  suffered  the  penalty 
of  the  law. 
Finally, since  slaveholders  have  deliberately  legal, 
ized  the  perpetration  of  the  most  cold-blooded  atro- 
cities upon  their  slaves,  and  do  pertinaciously  re- 
fuse to  make  these  atrocities  illegal,  and  to  punish 
those  w  ho  perpetrate  them,  they  stand  convicted 
before  the  world,  upon  their  own  testimony,  of 
the  most  barbarous,  brutal,  and  habitual  inhu- 
manity. If  this  be  slander  and  falsehood,  their 
own  lips  have  uttered  it,  their  own  fingers  have 
written  it,  their  own  acts  have  proclaimed  it ; 
and  however  it  may  be  with  their  morality,  they 
have  too  much  human  nature  to  perjure  them- 
selves for  the  sake  of  publishing  their  own  in- 
famy. 

Having  dwelt  at  such  length  on  the  legal  code 
of  the  slave  states,  that  unerring  index  of  the 
public  opinion  of  slaveholders  towards  their  slaves ; 
and  having  shown  that  it  does  not  protect  the 
slaves  from  cruelty,  and  that  even  ui  the  few  in- 
stances in  which  the  letter  of  the  law,  if  executed, 
would  afford  some  protection,  it  is  virtually  nulli- 
fied by  the  connivance  of  courts  and  juries,  or  by 
popular  clamor;  we  might  safely  rest  the  case 
here,  assured  that  every  honest  reader  would 
spurn  the  absurd  falsehood,  that  the  '  public 
opinion'  of  the  slave  states  protects  the  slaves 
and  restrains  the  master.  But,  as  the  assertion 
is  made  so  often  by  slaveholders,  and  with  so 
much  confidence,  notwithstanding  its  absurdity 
is  fully  revealed  by  their  own  legal  code,  we  pro- 
pose to  show  its  falsehood  by  applying  other 
tests. 

We  lay  it  down  as  a  truth  that  can  be  made 
no  plainer  by  reasoning,  that  the  same  '  public 
opinion,'  which  restrains  men  from  committing 
outrages,  will  restrain  them  from  publishing  such 
outrages,  if  they  do  commit  them  ; — in  other 
words,  if  a  man  is  restrained  from  certain  acts 
through  fear  of  losing  his  character,  should  they 
become  known,  he  will  not  voluntarily  destroy 
his  character  by  making  them  known,  should  he 
be  guilty  of  them.  Let  us  look  at  this.  It  is 
assumed  by  slaveholders,  that  '  public  opinion' 
at  the  south  so  frowns  on  cruelty  to  the  slaves, 
that  fear  of  disgrace  would  restrain  from  the  in. 
fliction  of  it,  were  there  no  other  consideration. 
Now,  that  this  is  sheer  fiction  is  shown  by  the 


152 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


fact,  that  the  newspapers  in  the  slavcholding 
states,  teem  with  advertisements  for  runaway 
slaves,  in  Vv'hieh  the  masters  and  mistresses  de- 
scribe their  men  and  women,  as  having  been 
'  branded  with  a  hot  iron,'  on  their  '  cheeks,' 
'jaws,'  'breasts,'  'arms,'  'legs,'  and  'thighs;' 
also  as  '  scarred,'  '  very  much  scarred,'  '  cut  up,' 
•  marked,'  &,e.  '  with  the  whip,'  also  with  '  iron 
collars  on,'  '  chains,'  '  bars  of  iron,'  '  fetters,' 
'  bells,'  '  horns,' '  shackles,'  &c.  They,  also,  de- 
scribe them  as  having  been  wounded  by  '  buck- 
shot,' '  rifie-balls,'  &c.  fired  at  them  by  their 
'  owners,'  and  others  when  in  pursuit ;  also,  as 
having  '  notches,'  cut  in  their  ears,  the  tops  or 
bottoms  of  their  ears  '  cut  off,'  or  '  slit,'  or  '  one 
car  cut  off,'  or  ♦  both  ears  cut  off,'  &c.  &c. 
The  masters  and  mistresses  who  thus  advertise 
their  runaway  slaves,  coolly  sign  their  names  to 
their  advertisements,  giving  the  street  and  num- 
ber of  their  residences,  if  in  cities,  their  post  of- 
fice address,  <Scc.  if  in  the  country  ;  thus  ma- 
king public  proclamation  as  widely  as  possible 
that  they  'brand,'  'scar,'  'gash,'  '  cut  up,' &,c. 
the  flesh  of  their  slaves ;  load  them  with  irons,  cut 
off  their  ears,  &e. ;  they  speak  of  these  things  with 
the  utmost  sang  froid,  not  seeming  to  think  it 
possible,  that  any  one  will  esteem  them  at  all  the 
less  because  of  these  outrages  upon  their  slaves  ; 
further,  these  advertisements  swarm  in  many  of 
the  largest  and  most  widely  circulated  political 
and  commercial  papers  that  are  published  in  the 
slave  states.  The  editors  of  those  papers  con- 
stitute the  main  body  of  the  literati  of  the  slave 
stales  ;  they  move  in  the  highest  circle  of  socie- 
ty, are  among  the  '  popular'  men  in  the  commu- 
nity, and  as  a  class,  are  more  influential  than  any 
other  ;  yet  these  editors  publish  these  advertise- 
ments with  iron  indifference.  So  far  from  pro- 
claiming to  such  felons,  homicides,  and  murder- 
ers, that  they  will  not  be  their  blood-hounds,  to 
hunt  down  the  innocent  and  mutilated  victims 
who  have  escaped  from  their  torture,  they  freely 
furnish  them  with  every  facility,  become  their 
accomplices  and  share  their  spoils  ;  and  instead 
of  outraging  '  public  opinion,'  by  doing  it,  they 
are  the  men  after  its  own  heart,  its  organs,  its 
representatives,  its  self. 

To  show  that  the  '  public  opinion'  of  the  slave 
states,  towards  the  slaves,  is  absolutely  diabolical, 
vve  will  insert  a  few,  out  of  a  multitude,  of  simi- 
lar advertisements  from  a  variety  of  southern 
papers  now  before  us. 

The  North  Carolina  Standard,  of  July  18, 
1838,  contains  the  following  : — 

"  TWENTY  DOLL-\RS  REWARD.  Ran- 
away  from  the  subscriber,  a  n.^gro  woman  and 
two  children  ;  the  woman  is  tall  and  black,  and 
a  few  days  before  she  went  off,  I  burnt  her  with 

A    HOT    IRON    ON    THE    LEFl'    SUIR    OF    HER    FACE  ;     I 

TRIED  TO  MAKE  THE  LF.TTisu    M,  and  ske  kept  a 


cloth  over  her  head  and  face,  and  a  fly  bonnet  on 
her  head  so  as  to  cover  the  burn;  her  children 
are  both  boys,  the  oldest  is  in  his  seventh  year  ; 
he  is  a  mulatto  and  has  blue  eyes  ;  the  youngest 
is  black  and  is  in  his  fifth  year.  The  woman's 
name  is  Betty,  commonly  called  Bet. 

MlCAJAH  RiCKS. 

Nash  County,  July  7,  1838. 

Hear  the  wretch  tell  his  story,  with  as  much 
indifference  as  if  he  were  describing  the  cutting 
of  his  initials  in  the  bark  of  a  tree. 

"  /  burnt  her  with  a  hot  iron  on  the  left  side  of 
her  face," — '^  I  tried  to  make  the  letter  M,"  and 
this  he  says  in  a  newspaper,  and  puts  his  name 
to  it,  and  the  editor  of  the  paper  who  is,  also,  its 
proprietor,  publishes  it  for  him  and  pockets  his 
fee.  Perhaps  the  reader  will  say,  '  Oh,  it  must 
have  been  published  in  an  insignificant  sheet 
printed  in  some  obscure  corner  of  the  state  ;  per. 
haps  by  a  gang  of  '  squatters,'  in  the  Dismal 
Swamp,  universally  regarded  as  a  pest,  and  edit- 
ed by  some  scapc-gallows,  who  is  detested  by  the 
whole  community.  To  this  I  reply  that  the 
"  North  CaroHna  Standard,"  the  paper  which 
contains  it,  is  a  large  six  columned  weekly  paper, 
handsomely  printed  and  ably  edited ;  it  is  the 
loading  Democratic  paper  in  that  state,  and  is 
published  at  Raleigh,  the  Capital  of  the  state, 
Thomas  Loring,  Esq.  Editor  and  Proprietor. 
The  motto  in  capitals  under  the  head  of  the  pa- 
per is,    ''  The    constitution  and  the  union  op 

THE     states — THEY    MUST     BE    PRESERVED."        The 

same  Editor  and  Proprietor,  who  exhibits  such 
brutality  of  feeling  towards  the  slaves,  by  giving 
the  preceding  advertisement  a  conspicuous  place 
in  his  columns,  and  taking  his  pay  for  it,  has  ap- 
parently  a  keen  sense  of  the  proprieties  of  life, 
where  whites  are  concerned,  and  a  high  regard 
for  the  rights,  character  and  feelings  of  those 
whose  skin  is  colored  like  his  own.  As  proof  of 
this,  we  copy  from  the  number  of  the  paper  con- 
taining the  foregoing  advertisement,  the  following 
Editorial  on  the  pending  political  canvass. 

"  We  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the  hope 
that  the  Gubernatorial  canvass  will  be  conduct, 
ed  with  a  due  regard  to  the  character,  and  feel- 
ings  of  the  distinguished  individuals  who  are  can- 
didates for  that  office  ;  and  that  the  press  of 
North  Carolina  will  set  an  example  in  this  respect, 
worthy  of  imitation  and  of  -praise" 

"Wliat  is  this  but  chivalrous  and  honorable  feel- 
ing ?  The  good  name  of  North  Carolina  is  dear  to 
him — on  the  comfort,  '  character  and  feehngs,' 
other  white  citizens  he  sets  a  high  value  ;  he  feels 
too,  most  deeply  for  the  character  of  the  Press  of 
North  Carolina,  sees  that  it  is  a  city  set  on  a 
hill,  and  implores  his  brethren  of  the  editorial 
corps  to  '  set  an  example'  of  courtesy  and 
magnanimity  worthy  of  imitation  and  praise. 
Now,  reader,  put  all  these  things  together  and 
con  them  over,  and  then  read  again  the  preceding 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


153 


advertisement  contained  m  the  same  number  of 
the  paper,  and  3'ou  have  the  true  "  Nortli  CaroHna 
Standard,"  by  which  to  measure  the  protection 
extended  to  slaves  by  the  '  pubhc  opinion'  of 
th-at  state. 

J.  P.  Ashford  advertises  as  follows  in  the 
"  Natchez  Courier,"  August  24,  18:^8. 

"  Ranaway,  a  negro  girl  called  Mary,  has  a 
f:mall  scar  over  her  eye,  a  good  many  teeth  mis- 
sing, the  letter  A.  is  branded  on  her  cheek  and 
forehead." 

A.  B.  Metcalf  thus  advertises  a  woman  in  the 
«ame  paper,  June  15,  1838. 

"  Ranaway,  Mary,  a  black  woman,  has  a  scar 
on  her  back  and  right  arm  near  the  shoulder, 
caused  by  a rijlle  ball" 

John  Henderson,  in  the  "  Grand  Gulf  Adver- 
tiser," August  29,  1838,  advertises  Betsey. 

"  Ranaway,  a  black  woman  Betsey,  has  an 
iron  bar  on  her  right  leg." 

Robert  Nicoll,  whose  residence  is  in  Mobile,  in 
Dauphin  street,  betvv^een  Emmanuel  and  Concep- 
tion streets,  thus  advertises  a  woman  in  the 
"  Mobile  Commercial  Advertiser." 

"  TEN  DOLLARS  REWARD  v/ill  be  given 
for  my  negro  woman  Li  by.  The  said  Liby  is 
about  30  years  old,  and  VERY  MUCH  SCAR- 
RED ABOUT  THE  NECK  AND  EARS,  occa- 
sioned by  whipping,  had  on  a  handkerchief  tied 
round  her  ears,  as  she  commonly  wears  it  to  hide 

THE    SCARS." 

To  show  that  slaveholding  brutality  now  is  the 
same  that  it  was  the  eighth  of  a  century  ago,  we 
publish  the  following  advertisement  from  the 
"  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Courier,"  of  1825. 

"  TWENTY  DOLLARS  REWARD.— Ran- 
away from  the  subscriber,  on  the  14th  instant, 
a  negro  girl  named  Molly. 

"  The  said  girl  was  sold  by  Messrs.  Wm.  Payne 
&  Sons,  as  the  property  of  an  estate  of  a 
Mr.  Gcarrall,  and'  pm'chased  by  a  Mr.  Moses, 
and  sold  by  him  to  a  Thomas  Prislcy,  of  Edge- 
licld  District,  of  whom  I  bought  her  on  the  17th 
of  April,  1819.  She  is  16  or  17  years  of  age, 
slim  made,  lately  branded  on  the  left  cheek, 

THUS,  R,  AND  A  PIECE  TAKEN  OFF  OF  HER  EAR 
ON  THE  SAME  SIDE  ;  THE  SAME  LETTER  ON  THE 
INSIDE    OF   BOTH    HER    LEGS. 

"  Abner  Ross,  Fairfield  District." 

But  instead  of  filling  pages  with  similar  ad- 
vertisements, illustrating  the  horrible  brutality  of 
slaveholders  towards  their  slaves,  the  reader  is 
referred  to  the  preceding  pages  of  this  work,  to 
the  scores  of  advertisements  written  by  slave, 
holders,  printed  by  slaveholders,  published  by 
slaveholders,  in  newspapers  edited  by  slaveholders, 
and  patronized  by  slaveholders  ;  advertisements 
describing  not  only  men  and  boys,  but  women, 
aged  and  middle-aged,  matrons  and  girls  of 
tender  years,  their  necks  chafed  with  iron  collars 
with  prongs,  their  limbs  galled  with  iron  rings, 
and   chains,  and  bars  of  iron,  iron  hobbles  and 


shackles,  all  parts  of  their  persons  scarred  with 
the  lash,  and  branded  with  hot  irons,  and  torn 
with  rifle  bullets,  pistol  balls  and  buck  shot,  and 
gashed  with  knives,  their  eyes  out,  their  ears  cut 
off,  their  teeth  drawn  out,  and  their  bones  broken. 
He  is  referred  also  to  the  cool  and  shocking  indif- 
ference with  which  these  slaveholders,  '  gentle- 
men' and  '  ladies,'  Reverends,  and  Honorablef", 
and  Excellencies,  write  and  print,  and  publish 
and  pay,  and  take  money  for,  and  read  and  cir- 
culate, and  sanction,  such  infernal  barbarity. 
Let  the  reader  ponder  all  this,  and  then  lay  it  to 
heart,  that  this  is  that  '  public  opinion'  of  the 
slaveholder,  which  protects  their  slaves  from  all  in- 
jury, and  is  an  effectual  guarantee  of  personal 
security. 

However  far  gone  a  community  may  be  in  bru- 
tality, something  of  protection  may  yet  be  hoped 
for  from  its  '  public  opinion,'  if  respect  for  woman 
survives  the  general  wreck  ;  that  gone,  protection 
perishes ;  public  opinion  becomes  universal  rapine ; 
outrages,  once  occasional,  become  habitual ;  the 
torture,  which  was  before  inflicted  only  by  pas- 
sion, becomes  the  constant  product  of  a  system, 
and,  instead  of  being  the  index  of  sudden  and 
fierce  impulses,  is  coolly  plied  as  the  permanent 
means  to  an  end.  When  women  are  branded 
with  hot  irons  on  their  faces  ;  when  iron  collars, 
with  prongs,  are  riveted  about  their  necks ;  when 
iron  rings  are  fastened  upon  their  limbs,  and  they 
are  forced  to  drag  after  them  chains  and  fetters ; 
when  their  flesh  is  torn  with  whips,  and  mangled 
with  bullets  and  shot,  and  lacerated  with  knives ; 
and  vi^hen  those  who  do  such  things,  are  regarded 
in  the  community,  and  associated  with  as  '  gen- 
tlemen' and  '  ladies  ;'  to  say  that  the  '  public  opin- 
ion' of  such  a  community  is  a  protection  to  its 
victims,  is  to  blaspheme  God,  whose  creatures 
they  are,  cast  in  his  own  sacred  image,  and  dear 
to  him  as  the  apple  of  his  eye. 

But  we  are  not  yet  quite  ready  to  dismiss  this 
protector,  '  Public  Opinion.'  To  illustrate  the 
hardened  brutality  with  which  slaveholders  re- 
gard their  slaves,  the  shameless  and  apparently 
unconscious  indecency  with  which  they  speak  of 
their  female  slaves,  examine  their  persons,  and 
describe  them,  under  their  own  signatures,  in 
newspapers,  hand-bills,  &,c.  just  as  they  would 
describe  the  marks  of  cattle  and  swine,  on  all 
parts  of  their  bodies  ;  we  will  make  a  few  extracts 
from  southern  papers.  Reader,  as  we  proceed 
to  these  extracts,  remember  our  motto — '  True 
humanity  consists  not  in  a  squeamish  ear.' 

Mr.  P.  Abdie,  of  New  Orleans,  advertises  in 
the  New  Orleans  Bee,  of  January  29,  1838,  for 
one  of  his  female  slaves,  as  follows ; 

'♦  Ranaway,  the  negro  wench  named  Betsey, 
aged  about  22  years,  handsome-faced,  and  good 
countenance  ;  having  the  marks  of  the  whip  be- 
hind her  neck,  and  several  others  on  her  rump. 


154 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


The  above  reward,  ($10,)  will  be  given  to  who- 
ever will  bring  tliat  wench  to  P.  Abdie." 

The  New  Orleans  IJee,  in  wliich  the  advertise- 
ment of  this  Vandal  appears,  is  the  '  Official  Ga- 
zette of  the  State — of  the  General  Council — and 
of  the  first  and  third  Municipalities  of  New  Or- 
leans.' It  is  the  largest,  and  the  most  influential 
I)aper  in  the  soutli-western  states,  and  perliaps  the 
most  ably  edited — and  has  undoubtedly  a  larger 
circulation  than  any  other.  It  is  a  daily  paper, 
of  $12  a  year,  and  its  circulation  being  mainly 
among  the  larger  merchants,  planters,  and  pro- 
fessional men,  it  is  a  fair  index  of  the  '  public 
opinion'  of  Louisiana,  so  far  as  represented  by 
those  classes  of  persons.  Advertisements  equally 
gross,  indecent,  and  abominable,  or  nearly  so, 
can  be  found  in  almost  every  number  of  that  pa- 
per. 

Mr.  William  Robinson,  Georgetown,  District 
of  Columbia,  advertised  for  his  slave  in  the  Na- 
tional Intelligencer,  of  Washington  City,  Oct.  2, 
1837,  as  follows: 

"  Eloped  from  my  residence  a  young  negress, 
22  years  old,  of  a  chesnut,  or  brown  color.  She 
has  a  very  singular  mark — this  mark,  to  the  best 
of  my  recollection,  covers  a  part  of  her  breasts, 
body,  and  limbs;  and  when  her  neck  and  arms 
are  uncovered,  is  very  perceptible  ;  she  has  been 
frequently  seen  east  and  south  of  the  Capitol 
Square,  and  is  harbored  by  ill-disposed  persons,  of 
every  complexion,  for  her  services." 

Mr.  John  C.  Beasley,  near  Huntsville,  Ala- 
bama, thus  advertises  a  young  girl  of  eighteen, 
in  the  Huntsville  Democrat,  of  August  1st,  1837. 
"  Ranaway  Maria,  about  18  years  old,  very  far 
advanced  with  child."  He  then  offers  a  reward 
to  any  one  who  will  commit  this  young  girl,  in 
this  condition,  to  jail. 

Mr.  James  T.  De  Jarnett,  Vernon,  Antauga 
CO.  Alabama,  thus  advertises  a  woman  in  the 
Pensacola  Gazette,  July  14.  1838.  "  Cclia  is  a 
bright  copper-colored  negress,  fine  figure  znAvery 
smart.  On  examining  her  back,  you  will  find 
marks  caused  by  the  whip."  He  closes  the  advert- 
isement, by  offering  a  reward  oi  five  hundred  dol. 
lars  to  any  person  who  will  lodge  her  in  jail,  so 
that  he  can  get  her. 

A  person  who  lives  at  124  Chartres  street. 
New  Orleans,  advertises  in  the  '  Bee,'  of  May 
31,  for  "  the  negress  Patience,  about  28  years 
old,  has  large  hips,  and  is  bow-legged."  A  Mr. 
T.CoGGV,  in  the  same  paper,  thus  describes  "  the 
negress  Caroline."  "  She  has  awkward  feet, 
clumsy  ankles,  turns  out  her  toes  greatly  in  walk- 
ing, and  has  a  sore  on  her  left  shin." 

In  another,  of  June  22,  Mr.  P.  Bahi  advertises 
"Maria,  with  a  clear  white  complexion,  and  double 
nipple  on  her  right  breast." 

Mr.  Charles  Craige,  of  Federal  Point,  New 
Hanover  co.  North  Carolina,  in  the  Wilmington 


Advertiser,  August  11,  1837,  offers  a  reward  for 
his  slave  Jane,  and  says  "  she  is  far  advanced  in 
pregnancy." 

The  New  Orleans  Bulletin,  August  18,  1838. 
advertises  ''  the  negress  Mary,  aged  nineteen,  haa 
a  scar  on  her  face,  walks  parrot-toed,  and  is 
pregnant." 

Mr.  J.  G.  MuiR,  of  Grand  Gulf,  Missisbippi, 
thus  advertises  a  woman  in  the  Vicksburg  Regis- 
ter, December  5,  1838.  "  Ranaway  a  negro 
girl — has  a  number  of  olack  lumps  on  her  breasts, 
and  is  in  a  state  of  pregnancy." 

Mr.  Jacob  Besson,  Donaldsonville,  Louisiana, 
advertises  in  the  New  Orleans  Bee,  August  7, 
1838,  ''  the  negro  woman  Victorine — she  is  ad 
vanccd  in  pregnancy ." 

Mr.  J.  H.  Leverich  &c  Co.  No.  10,  Old  Levee, 
New  Orleans,  advertises  in  the  '  Bulletin,'  Janua- 
ry 22,  1830,  as  follows. 

"  $50  Reward. — Ranaway  a  negro  girl  named 
Caroline  about  18  years  of  age,  is  /er  advanced 
in  child-bearing.  The  above  reward  will  be  paid 
for  her  delivery  at  either  of  the  jails  of  the  city." 

Mr.  John  Duggan,  thus  advertises  a  woman  in 
the  New  Orleans  Bee,  of  Sept.  7. 

''  Ranaway  from  the  subscriber  a  mulatto  wo 
man,  named  Esther,  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
large  stomach,  wants  her  upper  front  teeth,  and 
walks  pigeon-toed — supposed  to  be  about  the 
lower  fauxbourg. 

Mr.  Francis  Foster,  of  Troup  co.  Georgia, 
advertises  in  the  Columbus  (Ga.)  Enquirer  of 
June  22,  1837 — "  My  negro  woman  Patsey,  has 
a  stoop  in  her  walking,  occasioned  by  a  severe 
burn  on  her  abdomen." 

The  above  are  a  few  specimens  of  the  gross  de- 
tails, in  describing  the  persons  of  females,  of  all 
ages,  and  the  marks  upon  all  parts  of  iheir  bodies  ; 
proving  incontestably,  that  slaveholders  are  in  the 
habit  not  only  of  stripping  their  female  slaves  of 
their  clothing,  and  inflicting  punishment  upon 
their  'shrinking  flcsli,'  but  of  subjecting  their 
naked  persons  to  the  most  minulc  and  revolting 
inspection,  and  then  of  publishing  to  the  world 
the  results  of  their  examination,  as  well  as  the 
scars  left  by  their  own  inflictions  upon  them, 
their  length,  size,  and  exact  position  on  the  body  ; 
and  all  this  without  impairing  in  the  least,  the 
standing  in  the  community  of  the  shameless 
wretches  who  thus  proclaim  their  own  abomina- 
tions. That  such  things  should  not  at  all  affect 
the  standing  of  such  persons  in  society,  is  cer- 
tainly no  marvel :  how  could  fhcy  aftVet  it,  when 
tlic  same  communities  enact  laws  requiting  their 
own  legal  officers  to  inspect  minutely  the  per. 
eons  and  bodily  marks  of  all  slaves  taken  up  as 
runaways,  and  to  publish  in  the  newspapers  a 
particular  description  of  all  such  marks  and  pe- 
culiarities of  their  persons,  their  size,  appearance 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


155 


position  on  the  body,  «&c.  Yea,  verily,  when  the 
'  public  opinion'  of  the  community,  in  the  solemn 
form  of  law,  commands  jailors,  sheriffs,  captains 
of  police,  &c.  to  divest  of  their  clothing  aged  ma- 
tions  and  young  girls,  minutely  examine  their 
naked  persons,  and  publish  the  results  of  their 
examination — who  can  marvel,  that  the  same 
'  public  opinion'  should  tolerate  the  slaveholders 
themselves,  in  doing  the  same  things  to  their 
own  property,  which  they  have  appointed  legal 
officers  to  do  as  their  proxies.* 

The  zeal  with  which  slaveholding  'public 
opinion^  protects  the  lives  of  the  slaves,  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  advertisements,  taken 
from  a  multitude  of  similar  ones  in  southern  pa- 
pers. To  show  that  slaveholding  '  public  opinion' 
is  the  same  noxo,  that  it  was  half  a  century  ago, 
\vc  will  insert,  in  the  first  place,  an  advertisement 
published  in  a  North  Carolina  newspaper,  Oct. 
29,  178,5,  by  W.  Skinner,  the  Clerk  of  the 
County  of  Pcrquimous,  North  Carolina. 

"  Ten  silver  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  for  ap 
prehcnding  and  delivering  to  me  my  man  Moses, 
who  ran  away  this  morning ;  or  I  will  give  five 
times  the  sum  to  any  person  who  will  make  due 
proof  of  his  being  killed,  and  never  ask  a  question 
to  know  by  whom  it  was  done." 

W.  Skinner. 

Perquimans  County,  N.  C.  Oct.  29,  1785. 

The  late  John  Parrish,  of  Philadelphia,  an 
eminent  minister  of  the  religious  society  of 
Friends,  who  traveled  through  the  slave  states 
about  thirty-Jive  years  since,  on  a  religious  mis- 
sion,  published  on  his  return  a  pamphlet  of  forty 
pages,  entitled  '  Remarks  on  the  Slavery  of  the 
Black  People.'  From  this  work  we  extract  the 
following  illustrations  of  '  public  opinion'  in 
North  and  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  at  that 
period. 

"  When  I  was  traveling  through  North  Caro- 
lina, a  black  man,  who  was  outlawed,  being  shot 
by  one  of  his  pursuers,  and  left  wounded  in  the 
woods,  they  came  to  an  ordinary  where  I  had 
stopped,  to  feed  my  horse,  in  order  to  procure  a 
cart  to  bring  the  poor  wretched  object  in.  An- 
other, I  was  credibly  informed,  was  shot,  his 
head  cut  off,  and  carried  in  a  bag  by  the  perpe- 
trators of  the  murder,  who  received  the  reward, 

*  As  a  sample  of  these  laws,  we  give  the  following  ex- 
liact  from  one  of  the  laws  of  Maryland,  where  slave- 
holding  '  public  opinion'  exists  in  its  mildest  form. 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  sheriffs  of  the  several  coun- 
ties of  this  state,  upon  any  runaway  servant  or  slave  being 
committed  to  his  custody,  to  cause  the  same  to  be  adver- 
tised, &c.  and  to  make  particular  and  minute  descriptions  of 
the  person  and  bodily  marks  of  such  runaway." — Laws  of 
Man/land  of  1802,  Chap.  96,  Sec.  1  and  2. 

That  the  sheriffs,  jailors,  &c.  do  not  neglect  this  part  of 
their  official  '  duty,'  is  plain  from  the  minute  description 
which  they  give  in  the  advertisements  of  marks  upon  all 
parts  of  the  persons  of  females,  as  well  as  males ;  and  also 
from  the  occasional  declaration, 'no  scars  discoverable  on 
any  part,'  or  '  no  marks  discoverable  about  her ;"  which 
last  is  taken  from  an  advertisement  in  the  Milledgeville 
(Geo.)  Journal,  June  26, 1838,  signed  '  T.  S.  Densler,  Jailor.' 


which  was  said  to  be  $200,  continental  curren. 
cy,  and  that  his  head  was  stuck  on  a  coal  house 
at  an  iron  works  in  Virginia — and  this  for  going 
to  visit  his  wife  at  a  distance.  Crawford  gives 
an  account  of  a  man  being  gibbetted  alive  in 
South  Carolina,  and  the  buzzards  came  and 
picked  out  his  eyes.  Another  was  burnt  to 
death  at  a  stake  in  Charleston,  surrounded  by  a 
multitude   of  spectators,    some   of   whom    were 

people  of  the  first  rank  ; the   poor  object 

was  heard  to  cry,  as  long  as  he  could  breathe, 
'  not  guilty — not  guilty.'  " 

The  following  is  an  illustration  of  the  '  pubhc 
opinion'  of  South  Carolina  about  fifty  years  ago. 
It  is  taken  from  Judge  Stroud's  Sketch  of  the 
Slave  Laws,  page  39. 

"  I  find  in  the  case  of  '  the  State  vs.  M'Gee,'  1 
Bay's  Reports,  164,  it  is  said  incidentally  by 
Messrs.  Pinekney  and  Ford,  counsel  for  the  state 
(of  S.  C),  '  that  the  frequency  of  the  offence  (wil- 
ful murder  of  a  slave)  was  owing  to  the  nature 
of  the  punishment,^  &c.  .  .  .  This  remark  was 
made  in  1791,  when  the  above  trial  took  place.  It 
was  made  in  a  public  place — a  court-house — and 
by  men  of  great  personal  respectability.  There 
can  be,  therefore,  no  question  as  to  its  truth,  and 
as  little  of  its  notoriety." 

In  1791  the  Grand  Jury  for  the  district  of  Che- 
raw,  S.  C.  made  a  presentment,  from  which  the 
following  is  an  extract. 

"  We,  the  Grand  Jurors  of  and  for  the  district 
of  Cheraw,  do  present  the  inefficacy  of  the  pre- 
sent punishment  for  killing  negroes,  as  a  great  de 
feet  in  the  legal  system  of  this  state  :  and  we  do 
earnestly  recommend  to  the  attention  of  the  le- 
gislature, that  clause  of  the  negro  act,  which  con- 
fines the  penalty  for  killing  slaves  to  fine  and  im- 
prisonment only :  in  full  confidence,  that  they 
will  provide  some  other  inore  effectual  measures 
to  prevent  the  frequf.ncy  of  crimes  of  this  na- 
ture."— Matthew  Cai-ey's  American  Museum,  for 
Feb.  1791.— Appendix,  p.  10. 

The  following  is  a  specimen  of  the  'public  opin. 
ion'  of  Georgia  twelve  years  since.  We  give  it  in 
the  strong  words  of  Colonel  Stone,  Editor  of 
the  New-York  Commercial  Advertiser.  We  take 
it  from  that  paper  of  June  8,  1827. 

"  Hunting  men  with  dogs. — A  negro  who  had 
absconded  from  his  master,  and  for  whom  a  re- 
ward of  ;$100  was  off  red,  has  been  apprehended 
and  committed  to  prison  in  Savannali.  The  edi- 
tor, who  states  the  fact,  adds,  with  as  much  cool, 
ness  as  though  there  were  no  barbarity  in  the  mat- 
ter, that  he  did  not  surrender  till  he  was  consider 
ably  maimed  by  the  dogs  that  had  been  set  on 
him — desperately  fighting  them — one  of  which  he 
badly  cut  with  a  sword." 

Twelve  days  after  the  publication  of  the  pre- 
ceding fact,  the  following  horrible  transaction  took 
place  in  Perry  county,  Alabama.  We  extract  it 
from  the  African  Observer,  a  monthly  periodi- 
cal, published  in  Philadelphia,  by  the  society  of 
Friends.     See  No.  for  August,  1827. 

"Tuscaloosa,  Ala.  June  20,  1827. 

"  Some  time  during  the  last  week  a  Mr.  M'NeiL 


156 


Ohjcctiojis  Coyisidered — Public  Opinion. 


\y  having  lost  some  clotliing,  or  other  property  of 
no  great  value,  the  slave  of  a  neighboring  planter 
was  charged  with  the  theft.  M'Neilly,  in  compa- 
ny with  his  brother,  found  the  negro  driving  his 
master's  wagon  ;  they  sei7.cd  him,  and  cither  did, 
or  were  about  to  chastise  him,  when  the  negro 
stabbed  M'Neilly,  so  that  lie  died  in  an  hour  after- 
wards. Tlie  negro  was  taken  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  who  vmved  his  authority,  perhaps 
through  fear,  as  a  crowd  of  persons  had  collected 
to  the  number  of  seventy  or  eighty,  near  Mr. 
People's  (the  justice)  house.  He  acted  as  presi. 
dent  of  the  mob,  and  put  the  vote,  when  it  was  de- 
cided he  should  be  immediately  executed  by  bei7ig 
burnt  to  death.  The  sable  culprit  was  led  to  a 
tree,  and  tied  to  it,  and  a  large  quantity  of  pine 
knots  collected  and  placed  around  him,  and  the 
fatal  torch  applied  to  the  pile,  even  against  the  re- 
monstrances of  several  gentlemen  who  were  pre- 
sent ;  and  the  miserable  being  was  in  a  short  time 
burned  to  ashes. 

"  This  is  the  SECOND  negro  who  has  been 
THUS  put  to  death,  without  judge  or  jury,  in  this 
county." 

The  following  advertisements,  testimony,  &.c. 
\\^11  show  that  the  slaveholders  of  to-day  are  the 
children  of  those  who  shot,  and  hunted  with 
bloodhounds,  and  burned  over  slow  fires,  the 
slaves  of  half  a  century  ago  ;  the  worthy  inherit- 
ors of  their  civilization,  chivalry,  and  tender 
mercies. 

The  "Wilmington  (North  Carolina)  Adver- 
tiser" of  July  13,  1838,  contains  the  following  ad- 
vertisement. 

"  $100  will  be  paid  to  any  person  who  may  ap- 
prehend and  safely  confine  in  any  jail  in  this  state, 
a  certain  negro  man,  named  Alfred.  And  the 
same  reward  will  be  paid,  if  satisfactory  evidence 
is  given  of  his  having  been  killed.  He  has  one 
or  more  scars  on  one  of  his  hands,  caused  by  his 
having  been  shot. 

"the  citizens  or  onslow. 

"Richlands,  Onslow  co.  May  16th,  1838." 

In  the  same  column  with  the  above  and  direct- 
ly under  it  is  the  following  : — 

"Ranaway  my  negro  man  Richard.  A  re- 
ward of  $25  will  be  paid  for  his  apprehension 
DEAD  or  ALIVE.  Satisfactory  proof  will  only 
be  required  of  his  being  KILLED.  He  has  with 
him,  in  all  probability,  his  wife  Eliza,  who  ran 
away  from  Col.  Thompson,  now  a  resident  of  Al- 
abama, about  the  time  he  commenced  his  journey 
to  that  state.  durant  h.  Rhodes." 

In  the  "  Macon  (Georgia)  Telegraph,"  May  28, 
is  the  following  : — 

"  About  the  1st  of  March  last  the  negro  man 
Ransom  left  me  without  the  least  provocation 
whatever ;  I  will  give  a  reward  of  twenty  dollars 
for  said  negro,  if  taken  dead  or  alive, — and  if 
killed  in  any  attempt,  an  advance  of  five  dollais 
will  be  paid.  bryant  joilnson, 

"  Crawford  co.  Georgia."^ 

See  the  "  Newborn  (N.  C.)  Spectator,"  Jan.  5, 
1338,  for  the  following  : — 

•'  RANAWAY,  from  the  Bubscriber,  a  negro 


man  named  SAMPSON.  Fifty  dollars  reward 
will  be  given  for  the  delivery  of  him  to  me,  or 
his  confinement  in  any  jail  so  that  I  get  him, 
and  should  he  resist  in  being  taken,  so  that  vio- 
lence is  necessary  to  arrest  him,  I  will  not  hold 
any  person  liable  for  damages  should  the  slave 
be  killed.  Enoch  Foy. 

"  Jones  County,  N.  C." 

From  the  "  Macon  (Ga.)  Messenger,"  June 
14,  1838. 

"  To  the  owners  of  runaway  negroes,  a  large 
mulatto  Negro  man,  between  thirty-five  and 
forty  years  old,  about  six  feet  in  height,  having 
a  high  forehead,  and  hair  slightly  grey,  was 
KILLED,  near  my  plantation,  on  the  9th  inst.  He 
would  not  Surrender,  but  assaulted  Mr.  Bowcn, 
vi'ho  killed  him  in  self-defence.  If  the  owner 
desires  further  information  relative  to  the  death 
of  his  negro,  he  can  obtain  it  by  letter,  or  by 
calling  on  the  subscriber  ten  miles  south  of  Perry, 
Houston  county.  Edm'd.  Jas.  McGemee." 

From  the  '  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Courier,'  Feb, 
2U,  1836. 

"  $300  REWARD.  Ranaway  from  the  sub- 
scriber, in  November  last,  his  two  negro  men, 
named  Billy  and  Pompey. 

"  Billy  is  25  years  old,  and  is  known  as  the 
patroon  of  my  boat  for  many  years  ;  in  all  pro 
bability  he  may  resist  ;  in  that  event  50  dollars 
will  be  paid  for  his  HEAD." 

From  the  '  Newborn  (N.  C.)  Spectator,'  Dec. 
2.  1836. 

"  $  200  REWARD.  Ranaway  from  the  sub- 
scriber, about  three  years  ago,  a  certain  negro 
man  named  Ben,  commonly  known  by  the  name 
of  Ben  Fox.  He  had  but  one  eye.  Also,  one 
other  negro,  by  the  name  of  Rigdon,  who  ran  ■ 
away  on  the  8th  of  this  month. 

"  I  will  give  the  reward  of  one  hundred  dollars 
for  each  of  the  above  negroes,  to  be  delivered  to 
me  or  confined  in  the  jail  of  Lenoir  or  Jones 
county,  or  for  the  killing  of  them,  so  that  I 
CAN  see  them.  W.  D.  Cobb." 

"  In  the  same  number  of  the  Spectator  two 
Justices  of  the  Peace  advertise  the  same  run- 
aways, and  give  notice  that  if  they  do  not  imme- 
diately return  to  W.  D.  Cobb,  their  master,  they 
will  be  considered  as  outlaws,  and  an)'  body  may 
kill  them.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the 
proclamation  of  the  justices. 

"  And  wc  do  hereby,  by  virtue  of  an  act  of  tlic 
assembly  of  this  state,  concerning  servants  and 
slaves,  intimate  and  declare,  if  the  said  slaves  do 
not  surrender  themselves  and  return  home  to 
their  master  immediately  after  the  publication  of 
these  presents,  that  any  person  may  kill  and  de- 
stroy said  slaves  by  such  means  as  he  or  they 
think  ft,  iDithout  accusation  or  impeachment  of 
any  crime  or  offence  for  so  doing,  or  without  in. 
earring  any  penalty  or  forfeiture  thereby. 

"  Given  under  our  hands  and  seals,  this  12th 
November,  1836. 

"  B.  Coleman,  J.  P.  [Seal.] 
"  Jas.  Jones,  J.  P.  [Seal.]  " 

On  the  28th,  of  April  1836,  in  the  ciiy  of  St 
Louis,  Missouri,  a  black  man,  named  Mclntoeh, 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


157 


who  had  stabbed  an  officer,  that  had  arrested  him, 
was  seized  by  the  multitude,  fastened  to  a  tree 
171  the  midst  of  the  city,  wood  piled  around  him, 
and  in  open  day  and  in  the  presence  of  an  im- 
mense thronjj  of  citizens,  he  was  burned  to  death. 
The  Alton  (III.)  Telegraph,  in  its  account  of  the 
scene  says ; 

"  All  was  silent  as  death  while  the  execution- 
ers were  pilincr  wood  around  their  victim.  He 
said  not  a  word,  until  feeling  that  the  flames  had 
saized  upon  him.  He  then  uttered  an  awful 
howl,  attempting  to  sing  and  pray,  then  hung 
his  head,  and  suffered  in  silence,  except  in 
the  following  instance  : — After  the  flames  had 
surrounded  their  prey,  his  eyes  burnt  out  of  his 
head,  and  his  mouth  seemingly  parched  to  a 
cinder,  some  one  in  the  crowd,  more  compassion- 
ate than  the  rest,  proposed  to  put  an  end  to  his 
misery  by  shooting  him,  when  it  was  replied,  'that 
would  be  of  no  use,  since  he  was  already  out  of 
pain.'  '  No,  no,'  said  the  wretch,  '  I  aui  not,  I 
am  suffering  as  much  as  ever  ;  shoot  me,  shoot 
me.'  '  No,  no,'  said  one  of  the  fiends  who  was 
standing  about  the  sacrifice  they  were  roasting, 
'  he  shall  not  be  shot.  /  would  sooner  slacken 
the  fire,  if  that  looald  increase  his  misery  ;' dLud 
the  man  who  said  this  was,  as  we  understand, 

an  OFFICER   OF  JUSTICE  '." 

The  St.  Louis  correspondent  of  a  New  York 
paper  adds, 

"  The  shrieks  and  groans  of  the  victim  were 
loud  and  piercing,  and  to  observe  one  limb  after 
another  drop  into  the  fire  was  awful  indeed.  He 
was  about  fifteen  minutes  in  dying.  I  visited 
the  place  this  morning,  and  saw  his  body,  or  the 
remams  of  it,  at  the  place  of  execution.  He  was 
burnt  to  a  crump.  His  legs  and  arms  were  gone, 
and  only  a  part  of  his  head  and  body  were  left." 

Lest  this  demonstration  of  '  public  opinion' 
should  be  regarded  as  a  sudden  impulse  merely, 
not  an  index  of  the  settled  tone  of  feeling  in  that 
community,  it  is  important  to  add,  that  the  Hon. 
Luke  E.  Lawless,  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of 
Missouri,  at  a  session  of  that  Court  in  the  city  of 
St.  Louis,  some  months  after  the  burning  of  this 
man,  decided  officially  that  since  the  burning  of 
Mcintosh  was  the  act,  either  directly  or  by 
countenance  of  a  majority  of  the  citizens,  it  is  '  a 
case  which  transcends  the  jurisdiction,'  of  the 
Grand  Jury  !  Thus  the  state  of  Missouri  has 
proclaimed  to  the  world,  that  the  wretches  who 
perpetrated  that  unspeakably  diabolical  murder, 
and  the  thousands  that  stood  by  consenting  to  it, 
were  her  representatives,  and  the  Bench  sancti- 
fies it   with  the  solemnityof  a  judicial  decision. 

The  '  New  Orleans  Post,'  of  June  7,  1836,  pub- 
lishes the  following ; 

"  We  understand,  that  a  negro  man  was 
lately  condemned,  by  the  mob,  to  be  burned 
OVER  A  SLOW  FIRE,  which  was  put  into  execu- 
tion at  Grand  Gulf,  Mississippi,  for  murdering  a 
black  woman,  and  her  master." 

Mr.  Henry  Bradley,  of  Pennyan,  N.  Y.,  has 


furnished  us  with  an  extract  of  a  letter  written  by 
a  gentleman  in  Mississippi  to  his  brother  in  tliat 
village,  detailing  the  particulars  of  the  preceding 
transaction.  The  letter  is  dated  Grand  Gulf, 
Miss.  August  15,  183G.  The  extract  is  as  fo! 
lows  : 

''  I  left  Vicksburg  and  came  to  Grand  Gulf. 
This  is  a  fine  place  immediately  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  of  something  like  fifteen  hundred  in 
habitants  in  the  winter,  and  at  this  time,  I  sup- 
pose, there  are  not  over  two  hundred  white  inhabi- 
tants, but  in  the  town  and  its  vicinity  there  are 
negroes  by  thousands.     The  day  I  arrived  at  this 

place  there  was  a  man  by  the  name  of  G 

murdered  by  a  negro  man  that  belonged  to  him. 

G was  born  and  brought  up  in  A ,  state 

of  New  York.     His  father  and  mother  now  live 

south  of  A .     He  has  left  a  property  here,  it 

is  supposed,  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  no  fa- 
mily. 

"  They  took  the  negro,  mounted  him  on  a  horse, 
led  the  horse  under  a  tree,  put  a  rope  around  his 
neck,  raised  him  up  by  throwing  the  rope  over  a 
limb;  they  then  got  into  a  quarrel  among  them- 
selves ;  some  swore  that  he  should  be  burnt  alive  ; 
the  rope  was  cut  and  the  negro  dropped  to  the 
ground.  He  immediately  jumped  to  his  feet ; 
they  then  made  him  walk  a  short  distance  to  a 
tree ;  he  was  then  tied  fast  and  a  fire  kindled, 
when  another  quarrel  took  place  ;  the  fire  was 
pulled  away  from  him  when  about  half  dead,  and 
a  committee  of  twelve  appointed  to  say  in  what 
manner  he  should  be  disposed  of.  They  brought  in 
that  he  should  then  be  cut  down,  his  head  cut  off,  his 
body  burned,  and  his  head  stuck  on  a  pole  at  the 
corner  of  the  road  in  the  edge  of  the  town.  That 
was  done  and  all  parties  satisfied  ! 

"  G owned  the  negro''s  wife,  and  was  in  the 

habit  of  sleeping  with  her.'  The  negro  said  he 
had  killed  him,  and  he  believed  he  should  be  re- 
warded in  heaven  for  it. 

"This  is  but  one  instance  among  manj*  of  a 
similar  nature.  S.  S." 

We  have  received  a  more  detailed  account  of 
this  transaction  from  Mr.  William  Armstrong,  of 
Putnam,  Ohio,  through  Maj.  Horace  Nye,  of  that 
place.  Mr.  A.  who  has  been  for  some  years  em- 
ployed as  captain  and  supercargo  of  boats  de- 
scending the  river,  was  at  Grand  Gulf  at  the 
time  of  the  tragedy,  and  witnessed  it.  It  was  on  the 
Sabbath.  From  Mr.  Armstrong's  statement,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  slave  was  a  man  of  uncommon  in- 
telligence ;  had  the  over-sight  of  a  large  business 
— superintended  the  purchase  of  supplies  for  his 
master,  tfce. — that  exasperated  by  the  intercourse 
of  his  master  with  his  wife,  he  was  upbraiding 
her  one  evening,  when  his  master  overhearing 
him,  went  out  to  quell  him,  was  attacked  by  the 
infuriated  man  and  killed  on  the  spot.  The  name 
of  the  master  was  Green  ;  he  was  a  native  of  Au- 
burn, New  York,  and  had  been  at  the  south  but 
a  few  years. 

Mr.  EzEKiEL  BiRDSEvR,  of  Cornwall,  Conn.,  a 
gentleman  well  known  and  highly  respected  in 


158 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


Litchfield  county,  who  resided  a  number  of  years 
in  South  Carolina,  gives  the  following  testimo- 
ny :— 

"A  man  by  the  name  of  Waters  was  killed  by 
bis  slaves,  in  Newberry  District.  Three  of  them 
wore  tried  before  the  court,  and  ordered  to  be 
burnt.  I  was  but  a  few  miles  distant  at  the  time, 
and  conversed  with  those  who  saw  the  execution. 
The  slaves  were  tied  to  a  stake,  and  pitch  pine 
wood  piled  around  them,  to  which  the  fire  was 
communicated.  Thousands  were  collected  to 
witness  tliis  barbarous  transaction.  Other  execu. 
tions  of  tills  kind  took  place  in  various  parts  of 
the  state,  during  my  residence  in  it,  from  1818  to 
1824.  About  three  or  four  years  ago,  a  young 
negro  was  burnt  in  Abbeville  District,  for  an  at- 
tempt at  rape." 

In  the  fall  of  1837,  there  was  a  rumor  of  a  pro- 
jected insurrection  on  the  Red  River,  in  Louisia- 
na,    The   citizens  forthwith  seized  and   hanged 

NINE  SLAVES,  AND  THREE  FREE  COLORED  MEN,  WITH- 
OUT TRIAL.  A  few  months  previous  to  that  trans- 
action, a  slave  was  seized  in  a  similar  manner 
and  publicly  burned  to  death,  in  Arkansas.  In 
July.  1835,  the  citizens  of  Madison  county,  Mis- 
sissippi, were  alarmed  by  rumors  of  an  insurrec- 
tion •  arrested  five  slaves  and  publicly  executed 
them  without  trial. 

The  Missouri  Republican,  April  30, 1838,  gives 
the  particulars  of  the  deliberate  murder  of  a  negro 
man  named  Tom,  a  cook  on  board  the  steamboat 
Pawnee,  on  her  passage  up  from  New  Orleans  to 
St.  Louis.  Some  of  the  facts  stated  by  the  Re- 
publican are  the  following  : 

"  On  Friday  night,  about  10  o'clock,  a  deaf 
and  dumb  German  girl  was  found  in  the  store- 
room with  Tom,  The  door  was  locked,  and  at 
first  Tom  denied  she  was  there.  The  girl's 
father  came.  Tom  unlocked  the  door,  and 
the  girl  was  found  secreted  in  the  room  behind  a 
barrel.  The  next  morning  some  four  or  five  of 
the  deck  passt  ngers  spoke  to  the  captain  about  it. 
This  was  about  breakfast  time.  Immediately 
after  he  left  the  deck,  a  number  of  the  deck  pas- 
sengers rushed  upon  the  negro,  bound  his  arms 
behind  his  back  and  carried  him  forward  to  the 
bow  of  the  boat,  A  voice  cried  out  '  throw  him 
overboard,'  and  was  responded  to  from  every 
quarter  of  the  deck — and  in  an  instant  he  was 
plunged  into  the  river.  The  whole  scene  of 
tying  him  and  throwing  him  overboard  scarcely 
occupied  ten  minutes,  and  was  so  precipitate  that 
the  officers  were  unable  to  interfere  in  time  to 
save  him. 

"  Tiiere  were  between  two  hundred  and  fifty 
and  three  hundred  passengers  on  board." 

The  whole  process  of  seizing  Tom,  dragging 
him  upon  deck,  binding  his  arms  behind  his  back, 
forc-ing  him  to  the  bow  of  the  boat,  and  throwing 
him  overboard,  occupied,  the  editor  informs  us, 
about  TEN  MINUTES,  and  of  the  two  hundred  and 
fifty  or  three  hundred  deck  passengers,  with  perhaps 
as  many  cabin  passengers,  it  does  not  appear  that 
a  single  itidividual  raised  a  finger  to  prevent  this 


deliberate  murder  ;  and  the  cry  "  throw  him  over- 
board," was  it  seems,  "  responded  to  from  every 
quarter  of  the  deck  I" 

Rev.  James  A.  Thome,  of  Augusta,  Ky.,  son  of 
Arthur  Thome,  Esq  ,  till  recently  a  slaveholder, 
published  five  years  since  the  following  descrip- 
tion of  a  scene  witnessed  by  him  in  New  Or- 
leans  : 

"  In  December  of  1833,  I  landed  at  New  Or- 
leans, in  the  steamer  W .     It  was  after  night, 

dark  and  rainy.  The  passengers  were  called  out 
of  the  cabin,  from  the  enjoyment  of  a  fire,  which 
the  cold,  damp  atmosphere  rendered  very  comfort- 
able, by  a  sudden  shout  of,  '  catch  him — catch 
him — catch  the  negro,'  The  cry  was  answered 
by  a  hundred  voices — '  Catch  him — kill  him,'  and 
a  rush  from  every  direction  toward  our  boat,  in- 
dicated that  the  object  of  pursuit  was  near.  The 
next  moment  we  heard  a  man  plunge  into  the 
river,  a  few  paces  above  us.  A  crowd  gathered 
upon  the  shore,  with  lamps  and  stones,  and  clubs, 
still  crying,  '  catch  him — kill  him — catch  him — 
shoot  him.' 

"  I  soon  discovered  the  poor  man.  He  had 
taken  refuge  under  the  prow  of  another  boat,  and 
was  standing  in  the  water  up  to  his  waist.  The 
angry  vociferation  of  his  pursuers,  did  not  intim- 
idate him.  He  defied  them  all,  '  Don't  you 
dare  to  come  near  me,  or  I  will  sink  you  in  tlie 
river,'  He  was  armed  with  despair.  For  a 
moment  the  mob  was  palsied  by  the  energy 
of  his  threatenings.  They  were  afraid  to 
go  to  him  with  a  skiflT,  but  a  number  of  them 
went  on  to  the  boat  and  tried  to  seize  him.  They 
threw  a  noose  rope  down  repeatedly,  that  they 
might  pull  him  np  by  the  neck  !  but  he  planted 
his  hand  firmly  against  the  boat  and  dashed  the 
rope  away  with  his  arms.  One  of  them  took  a 
long  bar  of  wood,  and  leaning  over  the  prow,  en- 
deavored to  strike  him  on  the  head.  The  blow 
must  have  shattered  the  skull,  but  it  did  not  reach 
low  enough.  The  monster  raised  up  the  heavy 
club  again  and  said,  'Come  out  now,  you  oldras. 
cal,  or  die.'  •'  Strike,'  said  the  negro  ;  '  strike- 
shiver  my  brains  now ;  I  want  to  die ;'  and 
down  went  the  club  again,  without  striking. 
This  was  repeated  several  times.  The  mob,  see- 
ing their  efforts  fruitless,  became  mt^re  enraged 
and  threatened  to  stone  him,  if  he  did  not  surren- 
der himself  into  their  hands.  He  again  defied 
them,  and  declared  that  he  would  drown  himself 
in  the  river,  before  they  should  have  him.  They 
then  resorted  to  persuasion,  and  promised  they 
would  not  hurt  him.  '  I'll  die  first ;'  was  his  only 
reply.  Even  the  furious  mob  was  awed,  and  for 
a  while  stood  dumb. 

"  After  standing  in  the  cold  water  for  an  hour, 
the  miserable  being  began  to  fail.  We  observed 
him  gradually  sinking — his  voice  grew  weak  and 
tremulous — yet  he  continued  to  curse .'  In  the 
midst  of  his  oaths  he  uttered  broken  sentences — 
'  I  did'nt  steal  the  meat — I  did'nt  steal — my  mas- 
ter lives — master — master  lives  up  the  river — (his 
voice  began  to  gurgle  in  his  throat,  and  lie  was  so 
chilled  that  his  teeth  chattered  audibly)— I  did'nt 
— steal — I  did'nt  steal — my — my  master — my-- 
I  want  to  see  my  master — I  didn't — no — my  mas 
you  want — you  want  to  kill  me — I  didn't  steal 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


159 


tJie' — His  last  words  could  just  be  heard  as  he 
sunk  under  tlie  water. 

"  During  tliis  indescribable  scene,  not  one  of  the 
hundred  that  stood  around  made  any  effort  to  save 
the  man  until  he  was  apparently  drowned.  He 
was  then  dragged  out  and  stretched  on  the  bow 
of  the  boat,  and  soon  sufficient  means  were  used 
for  his  recovery.  The  brutal  captain  ordered  him 
to  bs  taken  off  his  boat — declaring,  with  an  oath, 
that  he  would  throw  him  into  the  river  again,  if 
he  was  not  immediately  removed.  I  withdrew, 
sick  and  horrified  with  this  appalling  exhibition 
of  wickedness. 

"  Upon  inquiry,  I  learned  that  the  colored  man 
lived  some  fifty  miles  up  the  Misssissippi ;  that  he 
had  been  charged  with  stealing  some  article  from 
llie  wharf;  was  fhed  upon  with  a  pistol,  and  pur- 
sued  by  the  mob. 

"  In  reflecting  upon  this  unmingled  cruelty — 
this  insensibility  to  suffering  and  disregard  of  life 
— I  exclaimed, 

'  Is  there  no  flesh  in  man's  obdurate  heart  V 

One  poor  man,  chased  like  a  wolf  by  a  hundred 
blood  hounds,  yelling,  howling,  and  gnashing 
their  teeth  upon  him — plunges  into  the  cold  river 
to  seek  protection  !  A  crowd  of  spectators  wit- 
ness the  scene,  with  all  the  composure  with 
which  a  Roman  populace  would  look  upon  a  gla- 
diatorial show.  Not  a  voice  heard  in  the  sufferer's 
behalf.  At  length  the  powers  of  nature  give  way  ; 
the  blood  flows  back  to  the  heart — the  teeth 
chatter — the  voice  trembles  and  dies,  while  the 
victim  drops  down  into  his  grave. 

"  What  an  atrocious  system  is  that  which  leaves 
two  millions  of  souls,  friendless  and  powerless — 
hunted  and  chased — afflicted  and  tortured  and 
driven  to  death,  without  the  means  of  redress. — 
Yet  such  is  the  system  of  slavery." 

The  '  public  opinion  '  of  slaveholders  is  illus. 
trated  by  scores  of  announcements  in  southern 
papers,  like  the  following,  from  the  Raleigh,  (N. 
C.)  Register,  August  20,  1838.  Joseph  Gales 
and  Son,  editors  and  proprietors — the  father  and 
brother  of  the  editor  of  the  National  Intelligencer, 
Washington  city,  D.  C. 

"  On  Saturday  night,  Mr.  George  Holmes,  of 
this  county,  and  some  of  his  friends,  were  in  pur- 
suit of  a  runaway  slave  (the  property  of  Mr. 
Holmes)  and  fell  in  with  him  in  attempting  to 
make  his  escepe.  Mr,  H.  discharged  a  gun  at 
his  legs,  for  the  purpose  of  disabling  him ;  but  un- 
fortunately, the  slave  stumbled,  and  the  shot 
struck  him  near  the  small  of  the  back,  of  which 
wound  he  died  in  a  short  time.  The  slave  con- 
tinued to  run  some  distance  after  he  was  shot, 
until  overtaken  by  one  of  the  party.  We  are  sa 
tisfied,  from  all  that  we  can  learn,  that  Mr.  H. 
bad  no  intention  of  inflicting  a  mortal  wound." 


Oh  !  the  gentleman,  it  seems,  only  shot  at  his 
legs,  merely  to  '  disable  ' — and  it  must  be  expect- 
ed that  every  gentleman  will  amuse  himself  in 
shooting  at  his  own  property  whenever  the  notion 
takes  him,  and  if  he  should  happen  to  hit  a  little 
higher  and  go  through  the  small  of  the  back  in. 


fortunate,'  and  the  whole  of  the  editorial  corps, 
instead  of  branding  him  as  a  barbarous  wretch  for 
shooting  at  his  slave,  whatever  part  he  aimed  at, 
join  with  the  oldest  editor  m  North  Carolina,  in 
complacently  exonerating  Mr.  Holmes  by  say- 
ing, "  We  are  satisfied  that  Mr.  H.  had  no  inten- 
tion of  inflicting  a  mortal  wound."  And  so  ♦  pub- 
lie  opinion '  wraps  it  up  ! 

The  Franklin  (La.)  Republican,  August  19, 
1837,  has  the  following  : 

"Negroes  Taken. — Four  gentlemen  of  this 
vicinity,  went  out  yesterday  for  the  purpose  of 
finding  the  camp  of  some  noted  runaways,  sup- 
posed to  be  near  this  place  ;  the  camp  was  disco- 
vered about  11  o'clock,  the  negroes  four  in  num- 
ber, three  men  and  one  woman,  finding  they 
were  discovered,  tried  to  make  their  escape 
through  the  cane  ;  two  of  them  were  fired  on,  one 
of  which  made  his  escape  ;  the  other  one  fell  after 
running  a  short  distance,  his  wounds  are  not  sup- 
posed to  be  dangerous  ;  the  other  man  was  taken 
without  any  hurt ;  the  woman  also  made  her  es- 
cape." 

Thus  terminated  the  morning's  amusement  of 
the  '/owe  gentlemen,^  whose  exploits  are  so  com  . 
placently  chronicled  by  the  editor  of  the  Franklin 
Republican.  The  three  men  and  one  woman 
were  all  fired  upon,  it  seems,  though  only  one  of 
them  was  shot  down.  The  half  famished  runa- 
ways  made  not  the  least  resistance,  they  merely 
rushed  in  panic  among  the  canes,  at  the  sight  of 
their  pursuers,  and  the  bullets  whistled  after  them 
and  brought  to  the  ground  one  poor  fellow,  who 
was  carried  back  by  his  captors  as  a  trophy  of 
the  '  public  opinion '  among  slaveholders. 

In  the  Macon  (Ga.)  Telegraph,  Nov.  27,  1838, 
we  find  the  following  account  of  a  runaway's  den, 
and  of  the  good  luck  of  a  '  Mr.  Adams,'  in  run- 
ning down  one  of  them  '  with  his  excellent  dogs  :' 

"  A  runaway's  den  was  discovered  on  Sunday 
near  the  Washington  Spring,  in  a  little  patch  of 
woods,  where  it  had  been  for  several  months,  so 
artfully  concealed  under  ground,  that  it  was  de. 
tectdfi  only  by  accident,  though  in  sight  of  two 
or  three  houses,  and  near  the  road  and  fields 
where  there  has  been  constant  daily  passing. 
The  entrance  was  concealed  by  a  pile  of  pine 
straw,  representing  a  hog  bed — which  being  re- 
moved, discovered  a  trap  door  and  steps  that  led 
to  a  room  about  six  feet  square,  comfortably  ceiled 
with  plank,  containing  a  small  fire-place  the  flue 
of  which  was  ingeniously  conducted  above  ground 
and  concealed  by  the  straw.  The  inmates  took 
the  alarm  and  made  their  escape  ;  but  Mr.  Adams 
and  his  excellent  dogs  being  put  upon  the  trail, 
soon  run  down  and  secured  one  of  them,  which 
proved  to  be  a  negro  fellow  who  had  been  out 
about  a  year.  He  stated  that  the  other  occupant 
was  a  woman,  who  had  been  a  runaway  a  still  lon- 
ger time.  In  the  den  was  found  a  quantity  of 
meal,  bacon,  corn,  potatoes,  &c.,  and  various 
cooking  utensils  and  wearing  apparel." 

Yes,  Mr.    Adams'  'excellent  dogs'  did  the 


stead  of  the  legs,  why  every  body  says  it  is  '  un.  j  work !     They  were   well   trained,    swift,  freehi 


160 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


keen-scented,  'excellent'  men-hunters,  and 
though  the  poor  fugitive  in  his  frenzied  rush  for 
liberty,  strained  every  muscle,  j'et  they  gained 
upon  him,  and  after  dashing  through  fens,  brier- 
beds,  and  the  tangled  undergrowth  till  faint  and 
torn,  he  sinks,  and  the  blood-hounds  are  upon 
him.  What  blood-vessels  the  poor  struggler  burst 
in  his  desperate  push  for  life — how  much  he  was 
bruised  and  lacerated  in  his  plunge  through  the 
forest,  or  how  much  the  dogs  tore  him,  the  Macon 
editor  has  not  chronicled — they  are  matters  of  no 
moment — but  his  heart  is  touched  with  the  merits 
of  Mr.  Adams' '  excellent  dogs,'  that  '  soon  run 
down  and  securetf' a  guiltless  and  trembling  hu- 
man  creature  I 

The  Georgia  Constitutionalist,  of  Jan.  1837, 
contains  the  following  letter  from  the  coroner  of 
Barnwell  District,  South  Carolina,  dated  Aiken, 
S.  C.  Dec.  20,  1S36. 

*'  To  the  Editor  of  the  Constitutionalist  : 

"  I  have  just  returned  from  an  inquest  I  held 
over  the  body  of  a  negro  man,  a  runaway,  that 
7/as  shot  near  the  South  Edisto,  in  this  District, 
CBamwell,)  on  Saturday  last.  He  came  to  his 
death  by  his  own  recklessness.  He  refused  to  be 
taken  alive — and  said  that  other  attempts  to  take 
him  had  been  made,  and  he  was  detennined  that 
he  would  not  be  taken.  He  was  at  first,  (when 
those  in  pursuit  of  him  found  it  absolutely  neces- 
sary,) shot  at  with  small  shot,  with  the  intention 
of  merely  crippling  him.  He  was  shot  at  several 
times,  and  at  last  he  was  so  disabled  as  to  be 
compelled  to  surrender.  He  kept  in  the  run  of  a 
creek  in  a  very  dense  swamp  all  the  time  that 
the  neighbors  were  in  pursuit  of  him.  As  soon 
as  the  negro  was  taken,  the  best  medical  aid  was 
procured,  but  he  died  on  the  same  evening.  One 
of  the  witnesses  at  the  Inquisition,  stated  that  the 
negro  boy  said  he  was  from  Mississippi,  and  be- 
longed to  so  many  persons,  that  he  did  not  know 
who  his  master  was,  but  again  lie  said  his  mas- 
ter's name  was  Brown.  He  said  his  name  was 
Sam,  and  when  asked  by  another  witness,  who 
his  master  was,  he  muttered  something  like  Au- 
gusta or  Augustine.  The  boy  was  appa^^ntly 
above  thirty -five  or  forty  years  of  age,  about  six 
feet  high,  slightly  yellow  in  the  face,  very  long 
beard  or  whiskers,  and  very  stout  built,  and  a 
stern  countenance  ;  and  appeared  to  have  been  a 
runaway  for  a  long  time. 

"  William  H.  Pritchard, 
"  Coroner  (Ex-officio,)  Barnwell  Dist.  S.  C. 

The  Norfolk  (Va.)  Herald,  of  Feb.  1837,  has 
the  following : 

"Three  negroes  in  a  ship's  yawl,  came  on 
Bhorc  j^esterday  evening,  near  New  Point  Com- 
fort, and  were  soon  after  apprehended  and  lodged 
in  jail.  Their  story  is,  that  they  belonged  to  a 
brig  from  New  York  bound  to  Havana,  which 
was  cast  away  to  the  soutliward  of  Cape  Henry, 
some  day  last  week  ;  that  the  brig  was  called  the 
Maria,  Captain  Whittemore.  I  have  no  doubt 
they  are  deserters  from  some  vessel  in  the  bay,  as 
their  statements  arc  very  confused  and  inconsist- 
ent.    One  of  these  fellows  is  a  mulatto,  and  calls 


himself  Isaac  Turner ;  the  other  two  arc  qu:<e 
black,  the  one  passing  by  the  name  of  James 
Jones  and  the  other  John  Murray.  Tliey  have 
all  their  clothing  with  them,  and  arc  dressed  in 
sea-faring  apparel.  They  attempted  to  make 
tlieir  escape,  and  it  was  not  till  a  musket  was  fired 
at  them,  and  one  of  them  slightly  wounded,  that 
they  surrendered.  They  will  be  kept  in  jail  till 
something  further  is  discovered  respecting  them." 

The  '  St.  Francisville  (La.)  Chronicle,'  of 
Feb.  1,  1839.  Gives  the  following  account  of  a 
'  negro  hunt,' in  that  Parish. 

"  Two  or  three  days  since  a  gentleman  of  this 
parish,  in  hunting  runaway  negroes,  came  upon 
a  camp  of  them  in  the  swamp  on  Cat  Island. 
He  succeeded  in  arresting  two  of  them,  but  the 
third  made  fight  ;  and  upon  being  shot  in  the 
shoulder,  fled  to  a  sluice,  where  the  dogs  sue 
cceded  in  drowning  him  before  assistance  could 
arrive." 

"  The  dogs  succeeded  in  drowning  him"  !  Poor 
fellow  !  He  tried  hard  for  his  life,  plunged  into 
the  sluice,  and,  with  a  bullet  in  his  shoulder,  and 
the  blood  hounds  unfleshing  his  bones,  he  bore  up 
for  a  moment  with  feeble  stroke  as  best  he  might, 
but  '  public  opinion,'  '  succeeded  in  drowning 
him,'  and  the  same  '  public  opinion,'  calls  the 
man  who  fired  and  crippled  him,  and  cheered  on 
the  dogs,  '  a  gentleman,'  and  the  editor  who  cele- 
brates the  exploit  is  a  '  gentleman'  also  I" 

A  large  number  of  extracts  similar  to  the 
above,  might  here  be  inserted  from  Southern 
newspapers  in  our  possession,  but  the  foregoing 
are  more  than  sufficient  for  our  purpose,  and  we 
bring  to  a  close  the  testimony  on  this  point,  with 
the  following.  Extract  of  a  letter,  from  the  Rev. 
Samuel  J.  May,  ot  South  Scituate,  Mass.  dated 
Dec.  20,  1838. 

"  You  doubtless  recollect  the  narrative  given 
in  the  Oasis,  of  a  slave  in  Georgia,  who  having 
ranaway  from  his  master,  (accoimled  a  very 
hospitable  and  even  humane  gentleman,)  was 
hunted  by  his  master  and  his  retainers  with 
horses,  dogs,  and  rifles,  and  having  been  driven 
into  a  tree  by  the  hounds,  was  shot  down  by  his 
more  cruel  pursuers.  All  the  facts  there  given, 
and  some  others  equally  shocking,  connected 
with  the  same  case,  were  first  communicated  to 
me  in  1833,  by  Mr.  W.  Russell,  a  highly  respect- 
able teacher  of  youth  in  Boston.  He  is  doubt- 
less ready  to  vouch  for  tliem.  The  same  gentle- 
man informed  me  that  he  was  keeping  school  on 
or  near  the  plantation  of  the  monster  whc  per- 
petrated the  above  outrage  upon  humanity,  that 
he  was  even  invited  by  him  to  join  in  the  hunt, 
and  when  he  expressed  abhorrence  at  the  thought, 
the  planter  holding  up  the  rifle  which  he  had  in 
his  hand  said  with  an  oath,  '  damn  that  rascal, 
titis  is  the  third  time  he  has  runaway,  and  he 
shall  never  run  again.  I'd  rather  put  a  ball  into 
his  side,  than  into  tlic.  best  buck  in  the  land.'" 

Mr.  Russell,  in  the  account  given  by  him  of 
this  tragedy  in  the  '  Oasis,'  page  267,  thus  de- 
scribes the  slaveholder  who  made  the  above  ex- 
pression, and   was  the  leader  of  the  '  hunt,'  and 


Oljections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


161 


in  whose  family  he  resided  at  the  time  as  an  in- 
Btructor  ;  he  says  of  him — He  was  "  an  opulent 
planter,  in  whose  family  the  evils  of  slaveholding 
were  palliated  by  every  expedient  that  a  humane 
and  generous  disposition  could  suggest.  He 
was  a  man  of  noble  and  elevated  character,  and 
distinguished  for  his  generosity,  and  kindness  of 
heart." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  May,  dated  Feb.  3,  1839, 
Mr.  Russell,  speaking  of  the  hunting  of  run- 
aways with  dogs  and  guns,  says  :  "  Occurrences 
of  a  nature  similar  to  the  one  related  in  the 
'  Oasis,'  were  not  unfrequent  in  the  interior  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina  twenty  years  ago. 
Several  such  fell  under  my  notice  within  the 
space  of  fifteen  months.  In  two  such  •  hunts,' 
I  was  solicited  to  join." 

The  following  was  written  by  a  sister-in-law  of 
Gc-rrit  Smith,  Esq.,  Peterboro.  She  is  married  to 
the  son  of  a  North  Carolinian. 

"  In  North  Carolina,  some  years  ago,  several 
slaves  were  arrested  for  committing  serious 
crimes  and  depredations,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Wilmington,  among  other  things,  burning  houses, 
and,  in  one  or  more  instances,  murder. 

'•  It  happened  that  the  vi'ife  of  one  of  these  slaves 
resided  in  one  of  the  most  respectable  families  in 
W.  in  the  capacity  of  nurse.  Mr.  J.  the  first 
Inwijer  in  the  place,  came  into  the  room,  where 
the  lady  of  the  house  was  sitting,  with  the  nurse, 
who  held  a  child  in  her  arms,  and,  addressing 
tiie  nurse,  said,  Hannah  !  would  you  know  your 
husband  if  you  should  sec  him  ? — Oh,  yes,  sir, 
she   replied — when    he  diiew  from  beneath  his 

CLOAK    THE    HEAD    OF    THE    SLAVE,  at    tile    sight    of 

which  the  poor  woman  immediately  fainted.  The 
heads  of  the  others  were  placed  upon  poles,  in 
some  part  of  the  town,  afterwards  known  as 
•  Negro  Head  Point.'  " 

We  have  just  received  the  above  testimony,  en- 
closed in  a  letter  from  Mr  Smith,  in  which  he 
eays,  "  that  the  fact  stated  by  my  sister-in-laiv, 
actually  occurred,  there  can  be  no  doubt." 

The  following  extract  from  the  Diary  of  the 
Rev.  Elias  CoRiVELius,  we  insert  her<J,  having 
neglected  to  do  it  imder  a  preceding  head,  to 
which  it  more  appropriately  belongs. 

"  New  Orieans,  Sabbath,  February  15,  1818. 
Early  this  morning  accompanied  A.  H.  Esq.  to 
tlie  hospital,  with  the  view  of  making  arrange- 
ments to  preach  to  such  of  the  sick  as  could  un- 
derstand  English.  The  first  room  we  entered 
presented  a  scene  of  human  misery,  such  as  I 
had  never  before  witnessed.  A  poor  negro  man 
was  lying  upon  a  couch,  apparently  in  grc.Tt  dis. 
tress  ;  a  more  miserable  object  can  hardly  be 
conceived.     His  face  was  much    disfigured,  an 

IRON    COLLAR,      TWO    INCHES     WIDE     AND     HALF    AN 
INCH    THICK,    WAS    CLASPED    ADOUT  HIS    NECK,  wllilc 

one  of  his  feet  and  part  of  the  leg  were  in  a  state 
of  putrefaction.  We  inquired  the  cause  of  his 
being  in  this  distressing  condition,  and  he  an- 
swered us  in  a  faltering  voice,  that  he  was  will- 
;.ing  to  tell  us  all  the  truth. 

>  '<  He  belonged  to  Mr. a  Frenchman,  ran- 

U 


away,  was  caught,  and  punished  with  one  hun. 
dred  lashes  !  This  happened  about  Christmas  , 
and  during  the  cold  weather  at  that  time,  he 
was  confined  in  the  Cane-house,  with  a  scanty 
portion  of  clothing,  and  without  fire.  In  this 
situation  his  foot  had  frozen,  and  mortified,  and 
having  been  removed  from  place  to  place,  he 
was  yesterday  brought  here  by  order  of  his  new 
master,  who  was  an  American.  I  had  no  time 
to  protract  my  conversation  with  him  then,  but 
resolved  to  return  in  a  few  hours  and  pray  witli 
him.     *     * 

"  Having  returned  home,  I  again  visited  the 
hospital  at  half  past  eleven  o'clock,  and  concluded 
first  of  all  [he  was  to  preach  at  12,]  to  pray  with 
the  poor  lacerated  negro.  I  entered  the  apart- 
ment in  which  he  lay,  and  observed  an  old  man 
sitting  upon  a  couch  ;  but,  without  saying  any- 
thing went  up  to  the  bed-side  of  the  negro,  who 
appeared  to  be  asleep.  I  spoke  to  him,  but  he 
gave  no  answer.  1  spoke  again,  and  moved  his 
head,  still  he  said  nothing.  My  apprehensions 
were  immediately  excited,  and  I  fell  for  his  pulse, 
but  it  was  gone.  Said  I  to  the  old  man,  '  surely 
this  negro  is  dead.'  '  No,'  he  answered,  '  he  haf 
fallen  asleep,  for  he  had  a  very  restless  sea- 
son last  night.'  I  again  examined  and  called 
the  old  gentleman  to  the  bed,  and  alas,  it  was 
found  true,  that  he  was  dead.  Kot  an  eye  had 
witnessed  his  last  struggle,  and  I  was  the  first, 
as  it  should  happen,  to  discover  the  fact.  I  call- 
ed several  men  into  the  room,  and  without  cere- 
mony thej'  wrapped  him  in  a  sheet,  and  carried 
him  to  the  dead-house  as  it  is  Cd,l\ed."—Edwardc' 
Life  of  Rev.  EUas  Cornelius,  pp.  101,  2,  3. 

THE    PROTECTION    EXTENDED    BY    '  PUBLIC    OPINION,' 
TO    TH-E     HEALTH*    OF   TIIE    SLAVES. 

This  may  be  judged  of  from  the  fact  that  it  is  per- 
feedy  notorious  among  slaveholders,  both  North 
and  South,  that  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  slaves 
sold  annually  in  the  northern  slave  states  to  be 
transported  to  the  south,  large  numbers  of  them 
die  under  the  severe  process  of  acclimation,  all 
suffer  more  or  less,  and  multitudes  much,  in  their 
health  and  strength,  during  their  first  years  in 
the  far  south  and  south  west.  That  such  is  the 
case  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  care  taken  by  all 
who  advertise  for  sale  or  hire  in  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  &c.  &c.  to 
inform  the  reader,  that  their  slaves  are  '  Creoles,' 
'  southern  born,'  country  born,'  &c.  or  if  they  are 
from  the  north,  that  they  are  '  acclimated,'  and  the 
importance  attached  to  their  acclimation,  is  shown 
in  the  fact,  that  it  is  generally  distinguished  from 
the  rest  of  the  advertisements  either  by  italics  or 
CAPITALS.  Almost  every  newspaper  published  in 
the  states  far  south  contains  advertisments  like  the 
following. 

From   the   "  Vicksburg  (Mi.)  Register,"  Dec. 
27,  1838. 

"  I  OFFER  my  plantation  for  sale.  Also  seven- 
ty.five  acclimated  Negroes.  O.  B.  Cobb." 

From    the"  Southerner," June  7,  1837. 

'•  I  WILL  sell  my  Old-River  plantation  near  Co- 
*  See  pp.  37-39. 


162 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


lumbia  in  Arkansas  ;— also   ONE  HUNDRED 
AND   THIRTY   ACCLIMATED     SLAVES. 
Benj.  Hughes." 
Port  Gibson,  Jan.  14, 1837. 

From  the  "  Planters'  (La.)  Intelligencer," 
March  22. 

"  Probate   sale — Will   be    ofFcred    for   sale    at 

Public    Auction,   to    the    highest    bidder,    ONE 

HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY  acclimated  slaves." 

G.  W.  Kketom. 

Judge  of  the  Parish  of  Concordia." 

From  the  '•  Arkansas  Advocate,"  May  22, 
1837. 

"  By  virtue  of  a  Deed  of  Trust,  executed  to  me, 
I  will  sell  at  public  auction  at  Fisher's  Prairie, 
Arkansas,  sixty  LIKELY  NEGROES,  consist- 
ing of  Men,  Womon,  Boys  and  Girls,  the  most  of 
whom  are  well  acclimated. 

Gkandison  D.  Royston, 

Trustee." 

From  the  "  New  Orleans  Bee,"  Feb.  9,  1838.   ' 

"  valuable  acclimated  negroes." 
"  WiLi/-  be   sold  on  Saturday,   10th  inst.  at  12 
o'clock,  at  the  city   exchange,'  St.  Louis  street." 

Then  follows  a  description  of  the  slaves,  closing 
with  the  same  assertion,  which  forms  the  cap. 
tion  of  the  advertisement  "  all  acclimated." 

General  Feli.x  Houston,  of  Natchez,  advertises 
in  the  "  Natchez  Courier,"  April  6,  1838  "  Thir- 
ty five  very  fine  acclimated  Negroes." 

Without  inserting  more  advertisements,  suf- 
fice it  to  say,  that  when  slaves  are  advertised  for 
sale  or  hire,  in  the  lower  southern  country,  if  they 
are  natives,  or  have  lived  in  that  n-eion  lono- 
enough  to  become  acclimated,  it  is  invariably 
stated. 

But  we  are  not  left  to  conjecture  the  amount 
of  suffering  experienced  by  slaves  from  the  north 
in  undergoing  the  severe  process  of  '  seasoning' 
to  the  climate,  or  '  acclimation.''  A  writer  in  the 
New  Orleans  Argus,  September,  1830,  in  an  arti- 
cle on  the  culture  of  the  sugar  cane,  says  :  '  The 
loss  by  deaih  in  bringing  slaves  from  a  northern 
climate,  which  our  planters  are  under  the  neccs- 
fiity  of  doing,  is  not  less  than  twenty-five  per 
cent.' 

Nothwithstanding  the  immense  amount  of 
suffering  endured  in  the  process  of  acclimation, 
and  the  fearful  waste  of  life,  and  the  notori- 
ety of  this  fact,  still  the  '  public  oj)inion'  of 
Virginia,  Maryland,  Delaware,  Kentucky,  Mis- 
souri, &.C.  annually  drives  to  the  far  south,  thou- 
sands of  their  slaves  to  undergo  these  sufferings, 
and  the  '  public  opinion,'  of  the  far  south  buys 
them,  and  forces  the  heli)lcss  victims  to  endure 
them. 

THE    '  PROTECTION,'   VOUCHSAFED    BY  '  PUBLIC     OPIN- 
ION,'   TO    LIBERTY. 

This  is  shown  by  hundreds  of  advertisements 
^n  southern  papers,  like  the  following : 


From  the  "  Mobile  Register,"  July  21.  1837. 
"WILL  BE  SOLD  CHEAP  FOR  CASH,  in 

front  of  the  Court  House  of  Mobile  County,  on 
the  22d  day  of  July  next,  one  mulatto  man 
named  HENRY  HALL,  who  says  he  is  free; 
his  owner  or  owners,  if  any,  having  failed  to  de- 
mand him,  he  is  to  be  sold  accordhig  to  the 
statute  in  such  cases  made  and  provided,  to  fay 
Jail  fees.  Wm.  Magee,  Sh'ff  M.  C." 

From  the  "  Grand  Gulf  (Miss.)  Advertiser," 
Dec.  7,  1838. 

''  COMMITTED  to  the  jail  of  Chickasaw  Co. 
Edmund,  Martha,  John  and  Louisa;  the  man  .'SO, 
the  woman  35,  John  3  years  old,  and  Lousia  14 
months.  They  say  they  are  free  and  were  de 
coyed  to  this  state." 

The  "  Southern  Argus,"  of  July  25,  1837,  con- 
tains the  following. 

"  RANAWAY  from  my  plantation,  a  negro 
boy  named  William.  Said  boy  was  taken  up  by 
Thomas  Walton,  and  says  Ae  'xas  free,  and  that 
his  parents  live  near  Shawnectown,  Illinois,  and 
that  he  was  taken  from  that  place  in  July  183G  ; 
says  his  father's  name  is  William,  and  his  mother's 
Sally  Brown,  and  that  they  moved  from  Frede. 
ricksburg,  Virginia.  I  will  give  twenty  dollars  to 
any  person  who  will  deliver  said  boy  to  me  or 
Col.  Byrn,  Columbus.     SAMUEL  H.  BYRN." 

The  first  of  the  follovcing  advertisements  was  a 
standing  one,  in  the  "  Vicksburg  Register,"  from 
Dec.  1835  till  Aug.  1836.  The  second  advertises 
the  same  free  man  for  sale. 

"  SHERIFF'S  SALE." 

"  COMMUTED,  to  the  jail  of  Warren  conn, 
ty,  as  a  Runaway,  on  the  23d  inst.  a  Negro  man, 
who  calls  himself  John  J.  Robinson;  says  thai  he 
«s//cc,  says  that  he  kept  a  baker's  shop  in  Co- 
lumbus, Miss,  and  that  he  peddled  through  the 
Chickasaw  nation  to  Pontotoc,  and  came  to 
Memphis,  where  he  sold  his  horse,  took  water, 
and  came  to  this  place.  The  owner  of  said  boy 
is  requested  to  come  forward,  prove  property,  pay 
c'p.arges,  and  take  him  away,  or  he  will  be  dealt 
with  as  the  law  directs. 

Wm.  Everett,  Jailer. 

Dec.  24,  1835." 

"  NOTICE  is  hereby  given,  that  the  above 
described  boy,  who  calls  himself  John  J.  Robin- 
son, having  been  confined  in  the  Jail  of  Warren 
county  as  a  Runaway,  for  six  months — and  liav. 
ing  been  regularly  advertised  during  this  period, 
I  shall  proceed  to  sell  said  Negro  buy  at  public 
auction,  to  the  highest  bidder  for  cash,  at  the 
door  of  the  Court  House  in  Vicksburg,  on  Mon- 
day, 1st  day  of  August,  1836,  in  pursuance  of 
thestatutein  such  cases  made  and  provided. 
E.  W.  Morris,  Sheriff. 

Viclisburg,  July  2, 1836." 

Sec  "Newburn  (N.  C.)  Spectator,"  of  Jan.  5, 
1838,  for  the  following  advertisement. 

"  RANAWAY,  from  the  subscriber  a  negro 
man  known  as  Frank  Pilot.  He  is  five  feet 
eight  inches  high,  dark  complexion,  and  about 
50  years  old,  has  been  free  since  1829 — is  now 
my  property,  as  heir  at  law  of  liis  last  owner, 
1  Samuel  Riilstun,  dec.     I  will  give  the  above  re- 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


163 


ward  if  he  is  taken  and  confined  in    any  jail    so 
that  I  can  get  him.  Samuel  Ralston. 

Pactolus,  Pitt  County." 
From    the    Tuscaloosa    (Ala.)    ''  Flag   of  the 
Union,"  June  7. 

"  COMMITTED  to  the  Jail  of  Tuscaloosa 
county,  a  negro  man,  who  says  his  name  is 
Robert  Winfield,    and  says  he  is  free. 

R.  VV.  Barber,     Jailer.'^ 

That  "  puhlic  opinion,"  in  the  slave  states  af- 
fords no  protection  to  the  liberty  of  colored  per- 
sons, ev.en  after  those  persons  become  legally  free, 
by  the  operation  of  their  own  laws,  is  declared 
by  Governor  Comegys,  of  Delaware,  in  his  re- 
cent address  to  the  Legislature  of  that  state,  Jan. 
1839.  The  Governor,  commentmg  upon  the 
law  of  the  state  which  provides  that  persons  con- 
victed of  certain  crimes  shall  be  sold  as  servants 
for  a  hmited  time,  says, 

''  Trie  case  is  widelij  different  icith  the  negro  (!) 
Although  ordered  to  be  disposed  of  as  a  servant 
for  a  term  of  years,  perpetual  slavery  in  the  south 
is  his  inevitable  doom  ;  unless,  pcradventure,  age 
or  dlscaj:e  may  have  rendered  him  icorthless,  or 
some  resident  of  the  State,  from  motives  of  benevo- 
lence, will  pay  for  him  three  or  four  times  his 
intrinsic  value.  It  matters  not  for  how  short  a 
lime  he  is  ordered  to  be  sold,  so  that  he  can  be 
carried  from  the  State.  Once  beyond  its  limits, 
all  chance  oj  restored  freedom  is  gone — for  he  is 
i-emoved  far  from  the  reach  of  any  testimony  to 
aid  him  in  an  effort  to  be  released  from  bondage, 
when  his  legal  term  of  sei-vitude  has  expired. 
Of  the  many  colored  convicts  sold  out  of  the  State, 
it  is  believed  none  ever  return.  Of  course  they 
are  purchased  tvilh  the  express  vieio  to  their  trans- 
portation for  life,  and  bring  such  enormous 
prices  as  to  prevent  all  competition  on  the  part  of 
those  of  our  citizens  who  require  their  services, 
and  would  keep  them  in  the  State." 

From  the  "  Memphis  (Ten.)  Enquirer,"  Dec. 
28,  1838, 

"  $50  Reward.  Ranaway,  from  the  subscri- 
ber, on  Thursday  last,  a  negro  man  named  Isaac, 
22  years  old,  about  5  feet  10  or  11  inches  high, 
dark  complexion,  well  made,  full  face,  speaks 
quick,  and  very  correctly  for  a  negro.  He  was 
originally  from  New-York,  and  no  doubt  will  at- 
tempt to  pass  himself  as  free.  I  will  give  the 
above  reward  for  his  apprehension  and  delivery, 
or  confinement,  so  that  I  obtain  him,  if  taken 
out  of  the  state,  or  $  30  if  taken  within  the  state. 
Jno.  Simpson. 
Memphis,  Dec.  28." 

Mark,  with  what  shameless  hardihood  this  Jno. 
Simpson,  tells  the  public  that  he  knew  Isaac 
Wright  was  a  free  man  !  '  He  was  originally 
FROM  New  York,'  he  tells  us.  And  yet  he  adds 
with  brazen  effrontery,  '  he  will  attempt  to  pass 
himself  as  free.'  This  Isaac  Wright,  was  ship- 
ped by  a  man  named  Lewis,  of  New  Bedford, 
Massachusetts,  and  sold  as  a  slave  in  New  Or- 
leans. After  passing  through  several  hands,  and 
being  flogged  nearly  to  death,  he  made  his  escape. 


and  five  days  ago,  (March  5,)  returned  to  His 
friends  in  Philadelphia. 

From  the  "  Baltimore  Sun,"  Dec.  23,  1838. 

"  Free  N  egroes. — Merry  Ewall,  a  free  negro, 
from  Viiginia,  was  committed  to  jail,  at  Snow 
Hill,  Md.  last  week,  for  remaining  in  the  State 
longer  than  is  allowed  by  the  law  of  1831.  The 
fine  in  his  case  amounts  toS225.  Capril  Purnell, 
a  negro  from  Delaware,  is  now  in  jail  in  the 
same  place,  for  a  violation  of  the  same  act. 
His  fine  amounts  to  four  thousand  dollars,  and 

he  WILL    BE    SOLD    IN    A    SHORT    TIME." 

The  following  is  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  of  Louisiana,  in  the  case  of  Gomez  vs. 
Bcnneval,  Martin's  La.  Reports,  fi56,  and  Wheel- 
er's ''  Law  of  Slavery,"  p.  380-1. 

Marginal  remark  of  the  Com.piler. — "  A  slave 
docs  nob  ber.ome  free  on  his  being  illegally  im- 
ported into  the  stale." 

"  Ptr  Cur.  Derbigmj,  J.  The  petitioner  is  a 
negro  in  actual  state  of  slavery  ;  he  claims  his 
freedom,  and  is  bound  to  prove  it.  In  his  at- 
tempt, however,  to  show  that  he  was  free  before 
he  was  introduced  into  this  country,  he  has  failed, 
so  that  his  claim  rests  entirely  on  the  laws  prohibit- 
ing the  introduction  of  slaves  in  tiic  United 
States.  That  the  plaintiff  was  imported  since 
that  prohibition  does  exist  is  a  fact  sufRcientl)- 
established  by  the  evidence.  What  right  he  lias 
acquired  under  the  laws  forbidding  such  importa- 
tion is  the  only  question  which  we  have  to  ex- 
amine. Formery,  while  the  act  dividing  Louisiana 
into  two  territories  was  in  force  in  this  country, 
slaves  introduced  here  in  contravention  to  it, 
were  freed  by  operation  of  law  ;  but  that  act  was 
merged  in  the  legislative  provisions  which  were 
subsequently  enacted  on  the  subject  of  importa- 
tion of  slaves  into  the  United  States  generally. 
Lender  the  now  existing  laws,  the  individuals  thus 
imported  acquire  no  personal  right,  they  are 
mere  passive  beings,  who  are  disposed  of  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  the  different  state  legisla- 
tures.    In  this  country  they  are  to  remain  slaves, 

and  TO  BE  SOLD  FOR  THE  BENEFIT  OF  THE  STATE. 

The  plaintiff,  therefore,  has  nothing  to  claim  as  a 
freeman  ;  and  as  to  a  mere  change  of  master, 
should  such  be  his  wish,  he  cannot  be  listened  to 
in  a  court  of  justice." 

Extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr,  Thomson  of  Penn . 
in  Congress,  March  1,  1826,  on  the  prisons  in 
the  District  of  Columbia. 

"  I  visited  the  prisons  twice  that  I  might  my- 
self ascertain  the  truth.  *  *  In  one  of  these 
cells  (but  eight  feet  square,)  were  confined  at 
tliat  time,  seven  persons,  three  women  and  four 
children.  The  children  were  confined  under  a 
strange  system  of  law  in  this  District,  hj  which 
a  colored  person  who  alleges  he  is  free,  and 
appeals  to  the  tribunals  of  the  country,  to  have 
the  matter  tried,  is  committed  to  prison,  till  the 
decision  takes  place.  They  were  almost  naked  • 
one  of  them  was  sick,  lying  on  the  damp  brick, 
floor,  u'iihout  bed,  pillow,  or  covering.  In  this 
abominable  cell,  seven  human  beings  were  con- 
fined day  by  day,  and  night  after  night,  without 
a  bed,  chair,  or  stool,  or  any  other  of  the  most 


164 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


common  necessaries  of  life." — Gales'  Congres- 
sional  Debates,  v.  2,    p.  1480. 

The  following  facts  serve  to  show,  that  the  pre. 
Pent  generation  of  slaveholders  do  but  follow  in 
the  footsteps  of  their  fathers,  in  their  zeal  for 
LIBERIY. 

Extract  from  a  d,)cument  submitted  by  the 
I'ommittec  of  the  yearly  meeting  of  Friends  in 
Philadelphia,  to  the  Committee  of  Congress,  to 
whom  was  referred  the  memorial  of  the  people 
called  Quakers,  in  1797. 

"  In  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1776,  several  of 
the  people  called  Quakers,  residing  in  the  coun- 
ties of  Perquimans  and  Pasquotank,  in  the  state 
of  North  Carolina,  liberated  their  negroes,  as  it 
was  then  clear  there  was  no  existing  law  to  pre- 
vent their  so  doing ;  for  the  lav*?  of  1741  could  not 
at  that  time  be  carried  into  effect;  and  tliey  were 
suffered  to  remain  free,  until  a  law  passed,  in  the 
spring  of  1777,  under  which  they  were  taken  up 
and  sold,  contrary  to  the  Bill  of  Rights,  recog- 
nized in  the  constitution  of  that  state,  as  a  part 
thereof,  and  to  which  it  was  annexed. 

"  In  the  spring  of  1777,  when  the  General  As- 
sembly met  for  the  first  time,  a  law  was  enacted 
to  prevent  slaves  from  being  emancipated,  except 
for  meritorious  services,  &c.  to  be  judged  of  by 
the  county  courts  or  the  general  assembly  ;  and 
ordering,  that  if  any  should  be  manumitted  in 
any  other  'WA.y,  they  be  taken  up,  and  the  county 
courts  within  whose  jurisdictions  they  arc  appre- 
hended should  order  them  to  be  sold.  Under  tliis 
law  the  county  courts  of  Perquimans  and  Pasquo- 
tank, in  the  year  1777,  ordered  a  large  NtjMcr.R 

OF    PERSONS    TO    BE    SOLD,  WHO  WJSRE    FREE  AT  THE 

TIME  THE  LAW  WAS  MADE.  In  the  year  1778  seve- 
ral of  those  cases  were,  by  certiorari,  brought  be- 
tbre  the  superior  court  for  the  district  of  Eden- 
torn,  where  the  decisions  of  the  comity  courts 
were  reversed,  the  superior  court  declaring,  that 
said  county  courts,  in  such  their  proceedings, 
have  exceeded  their  jurisdiction,  violated  the 
rights  of  the  subject,  and  acted  in  direct  opposi- 
tion to  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  this  state,  considered 
justly  as  part  of  the  constitution  thereof;  by  giv- 
ing to  a  law,  not  intended  to  affect  this  case,  a 
retrospective  operation,  thereby  to  deprive  free- 
men of  this  state  of  their  liberty,  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  land.  In  consequence  of  this  decree 
several  of  the  negroes  vi'ere  again  set  at  liberty ; 
but  the  next  General  Assembly,  early  in  1779, 
passed  a  law,  wherein  they  mention,  that  doubts 
have  arisen,  whether  the  purchasers  of  such  slaves 
have  a  good  and  legal  title  thereto,  and  confirm 
the  same ;  under  which  they  were  again  taken 
up  by  the  purchasers  and  reduced  to  slavery." 

[Tiie  number  of  persons  thus  re-enslaved  was 
134.] 

The  following  arc  the  decrees  of  the  Courts, 
ordering  the  sale  of  those  freemen  : — 
•'  Perquimans  Ciinnty,  July  term,  at  Hartford, 

A.  D.  1777. 

"  These  may  certify,  that  it  was  then  and  there 
ordered,  that  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  to-morrow 
morning,  at  ten  o'clock,  expose  to  sale,  to  the 
hjgliest  bidder,  for  ready  money,at  the  court-house 


door,  the  several  negroes  taken  up  as  free,  and  m 
his  custody,  agreeable  to  law. 

"  Test.  Wm.  Skinner,  Clerk. 

"  A  true  copy,  25th  August,  1791. 

"Test.  J.  Harvey,  Clerk." 

"  Pasquotank  County,  September  Court,  &c.  &c. 
1777. 

"  Present,  the  Worshipful  Thomas  Boyd,  Tim- 
othy Hicksoii,  John  Paclin,  Edmund  Chancey, 
Joseph  Reading,  and  Thomas  Recs,  Esqrs.  Jus- 
tices. 

"  It  was  then  and  there  ordered,  that  Thomas 
Reading,  Esq.  take  the  free  negroes  taken  up 
under  aji  act  to  prevent  domestic  insurrections 
and  other  purposes,  and  expose  the  same  to  th» 
best  bidder,  at  public  vendue,  for  ready  money, 
and  be  accountable  for  the  same,  agreeable  to  tlie 
aforesaid  act ;  and  make  return  to  this  or  the  next 
succeeding  court  of  his  proceedings. 

'•  A  copy.  Enoch  Reese,  C.  C." 

THE    I'llOTECTION    OF    "  PUBLIC    OPLXION"    TO 
domestics   TIES. 

The  barbarous  indiffjrence  with  which  slave- 
holders regard  the  forcible  sundering  of  husbands 
and  wives,  parents  and  children,  brotliers  and 
sisters,  and  the  unfeeling  brutality  indicated  by 
the  language  in  which  they  describe  the  efforts 
made  by  the  slaves,  in  their  yearnings  after  those 
from  whom  they  have  been  torn  away,  reveals  a 
'public  opinion'  towards  them  as  dead  to  thei» 
agony  as  if  they  were  cattle.  It  is  well  nigh  im 
possible  to  open  a  southern  paper  without  findin> 
evidence  of  this.  Though  the  truth  of  this  assei 
tion  can  hardly  be  called  in  question,  we  subjoin  a 
few  illustrations,  and  could  easily  give  hundreds. 

From  the  "  Savannah  Georgian,"  Jan.  17,  1839. 

"  §)100  reward  will  be  given  for  my  two  fellows. 
Abram  and  Frank.  Abram  has  a  wife  at  Colonel 
Stewart's,  in  Liberty  county,  and  a  sister  in  Sa- 
vannah, at  Capt.  Grovcnstine's.  Frank  has  a  wife 
at  Mr.  Le  Cont's,  Libert)'  county;  a  mother  ai 
Thunderbolt,  and  a  sister  in  Savannah. 

Wm.  Roiiarts. 

"  Wallhourville,  5th  Jan.  1839  " 

From  the  "Lexington  (Ky.)  Intblligcncer.' 
July  7,  1838. 

■'  $160  Reward. — Ranaway  from  the  subscrib- 
ers, living  in  this  city,  on  Saturday  16th  inst.  a 
negro  man,  named  Dick,  about  37  years  of  age. 
It  is  highly  probable  said  boy  will  make  for  New 
Orleans,  as  he  has  a  wife  living  in  that  city,  and 
he  has  been  heard  to  say  frequently  that  he  was 
determined  to  go  to  New  Orleans. 

"  Drake  &,  Thompson. 

"  Lexington,  June  17,  1838." 

From  the  "  Southern  Argus,"  Oct.  31,  1837. 

"  Runaway — my  negro  man,  Frederick,  about 
20  years  of  age.  He  is  no  doubt  near  the  planta. 
tionof  G.  W.  Corprew,  Esq  ofNoxubbee  county, 
Mississippi,  as  his  wife  belongs  to  that  grntlcman, 
and  he  folln^ced  her  from  my  residence.  The  above 
reward  will  be  paid  to  any  one  who  will  confine 
him  in  jail  and  inform  nic  of  it  at  Athens,  Ala. 

"  Athene,  Alabama.  Kerkman  Lewis." 


Ohjcciions  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


165 


From  the  ''  Savannah  Georgian,"  July  8, 1837. 

"  Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  his  man  Joe. 
He  visits  the  city  occasionally,  where  he  lias  been 
harbored  by  his  mother  and  sister.  I  will  give 
one  hundred  dollars  for  proof  sufficient  to  convict 
his  harbor ers.  R.  P.  T.  Mongin." 

The  "  Macon  (Georgia)  Messenger,"  Nov.  23, 
1837,  has  the  following  : — 

"  ^25  Reward. — Ran  awaj%  a  negro  man, 
named  Cain.  lie  was  brought  from  Florida,  and 
has  a  wife  near  Mariana,  and  probably  will  at- 
tempt  to  make  his  way  there. 

H.  L.  Cook." 

From  the  "  Richmond  (Va.)  Whig,"  July  25, 
1837. 

"  Absconded  from  the  subscriber,  a  negro  man, 
by  the  name  of  Wilson.  He  wa«  born  in  tho 
county  of  New  Kent,  and  raised  by  a  gentleman 
named  Ratliffc,  and, by  him  sold  to  a  gentleman 
named  Taylor,  on  whose  farm  he  had  a  wife  and 
several  children.  Mr.  Taylor  sold  him  to  a  Mr. 
Slater,  who,  in  consequence  of  removing  to  Ala- 
bama, Wilson  left ;  and  Vvhcn  retaken  was  sold, 
and  afterv.'ards  purchased,  by  his  present  owner, 
from  T.  Mc  Cargo  and  Co.  of  Richmond." 

From  the  "  Savannah  (Ga.)  Republican,"  Sept. 
3,  1838. 

"  $20  Reward  for  my  negro  man  Jim. — Jim  is 
about  60  or  55  years  of  age.  It  is  probable  he 
will  aim  for  Savannah,  as  he  said  he  had  children 
in  that  vicinity.  J.  G.  Owens. 

"  Barnwell  District,  S.  C." 

From  the  "  Staunton  (Va.)  pectator,"  Jan. 
3,  1839. 

"  Ranaway,  Jesse. — He  has  a  wife^  who  be- 
longs to  Mr.  John  RufF,  of  Lexmgton,  Rockbridge 
county,  and  he  may  probably  be  lurking  in  that 
neighborhood,  Moses  McCue." 

From  the  "  Augusta  (Georgia)  Chronicle,"  July 
10,  1837. 

"  $120  Reward  for  my  negro  Charlotte.  She 
is  about  20  years  old.  She  was  purchased  some 
months  past  from  Mr.  Thomas  J.  Walton,  of  Au- 
gusta, by  Thomas  W.  Oliver ;  and,  as  her  mother 
and  acquaintances  live  in  that  city,  it  is  very 
likely  she  is  harbored  by  some  of  them. 

Martha  Oliver." 

From  the  "Raleigh  (N.C.)  Register,"  July  18, 
1837. 

"  Ranaway  from  the  subscriber,  a  negro  man 
named  Jim,  the  property  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Whit- 
field.  He  has  a  wife  at  the  late  Hardy  Jones', 
and  may  probably  be  lurking  in  that  neighbor- 
hood. John  O'Rorke." 

From  the  "  Richmond  (Va.)  Compiler,"  Sept. 
8,  1837. 

"Ranaway  from  the  subscriber,  Ben.  He  ran 
off  without  any  known  cause,  and  /  suppose  he  is 
aiming  to  go  to  his  wife,  who  was  carried  from 
the  neighborhood  last  winter.         John  Hunt." 

From  the  "  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Mercury,"  Aug. 
1,  1837 


"  Absconded  from  Mr.  E.  D.  Bailey,  on  Wad. 
malaw,  his  negro  man,  named  Saby.  Said  fellow 
was  purchased  in  Januarj',  from  Franci.s  Dickin- 
son, of  St.  Paul's  parish,  and  is  probably  now  in 
that  neighborhood,  where  he  has  a  wife. 

Thomas  N.  Gadsden." 

From  the  "  Portsmouth  (Va.)  Times,"  August 
3,  1838. 

"  $50  dollars  Reward  will  be  given  for  the  ap- 
prehension of  my  negro  man  Isaac.  He  has  a 
wife  at  James  M.  Riddick's,  of  Gates  county,  N. 
C.  where  he  may  probably  be  lurking. 

C."  Miller." 

From  the  "  Savannah  (Georgia)  Repixblican," 
May  24,  1838. 

"  $40  Reward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber 
in  Savannah,  his  negro  girl  Pat.sey.  She  was 
purchased  among  the  gang  of  negroes,  known  as 
the  HargreaveS  estate.  She  is  no  doubt  lurking 
about  Liberty  countj",  at  which  place  she  has  rela- 
tives. Edward  Houstoun,  of  Florida." 

From  the  "  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Courier,"  June 
29,  1837, 

"  $20  Reward  will  be  paid  for  tho  apprehension 
and  delivery,  at  the  work-house  in  Charleston,  of 
a  mulatto  woman,  named  Ida.  It  is  probable  she 
may  have  made  her  way  into  Georgia,  where  she 
has  connections. 

Matthew  Mugguidge." 

From  the  "  Norfolk  (Va.)  Beacon,"  March 
31,  1838. 

"  The  subscriber  will  give  $20  for  the  appre- 
hension of  his  negro  woman,  Maria,  who  ran 
away  about  twelve  months  since.  She  is  known 
to  be  lurking  in  or  about  Chnckatuch,  in  the 
county  of  Nansemond,  where  she  has  a  husband, 
and  formerly  belonged. 

Peter  Oneill." 

From  the  "Macon  (Georgia)  Messenger,"  Jan. 
16,  1839. 

"  Ranaway  from  the  subscriber,  two  ncoroes, 
Davis,  a  man  about  45  years  old  ;  also  Peggy, 
his  wife,  near  the  same  age.  Said  negroes  will 
probably  make  their  way  to  Columbia  county,  as 
they  have  children  living  in  that  county.  I  will 
liberally  reward  any  person  who  may  deliver  them 
to  me.  Nehemiah  Kl^^g." 

From  the  "  Petersburg  (Va.)  Constellation," 
June  27,  1837. 

"  Ranaway,  a   negro  man,  named  Peter.     He 
has  a  wife  at  the  plantation  of  Mr.  C.  Haws,  near 
Suffolk,  where  it  is  supposed  he  is  still  lurking. 
John  L.  Dunn." 

From  the  "Richmond  (Va.)  Whig,"  Dec.  7, 
1739. 

"  Ranaway  from  the  subscriber,  a  negro  man. 
named  John  Lewis.  It  is  supposed  that  he  i.s 
lurking  about  in  New  Kent  county,  where  he  pro- 
fesses to  have  a  wife.  Hill  Jones, 

"Agent  for  R.  F.  &  P.  Railroad  Co."' 

From  the  "  Red  River  (La.)  Whig,"  June  2d. 
1838. 

"  Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  a  mulatto  wo- 


166 


Oijections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


man,  named  Maria.  It  is  probable  she  may  be 
ibuiid  m  the  neighborliood  of  Mr.  Jesse  Bynum's 
j'lantation,  where  she  has  relations,  tfcc. 

Thomas  J.  Wells." 

From  the  "  Lcxinffton  (Ky.)  Observer  and  Re- 
porter," Sept.  28,  1838. 

"  ^50  Reward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber, 
a  neirro  girl,  named  Maria.  She  is  of  a  copper 
color,  between  13  and  14  years  of  age — bare  head- 
ed and  hare  fouled.  She  is  small  of  her  age — 
very  sprightly  and  very  likely.  She  stated  she 
was  going  to  see  her  mother  at  Maysville. 

Sanford  Thomson." 

From  the  "  Jaekson  (Tenn.)  Telegraph,"  Sept. 
14,  1838. 

•'  Committed  to  the  jail  of  Madison  county,  a 
negro  woman,  who  calls  lier  name  Fanny,  and 
says  she  belongs  to  William  Miller,  of  Mobile. 
She  formerly  belonged  to  John  Givins,  of  this 
county,  who  now  owns  several  of  her  children. 
David  Shuopshike,  Jailor." 

From  the  "  Norfolk  (Va.)  Beacon,"  July  3d, 
1838. 

"  Runaway  from  my  plantation  below  Eden. 
ton,  my  negro  man.  Nelson.  He  has  a  mother 
living  at  Mr.  James  Goodwin's,  in  Ballaliack, 
Perquimans  county  ;  and  two  brothers,  one  be- 
longing to  Job  Parker,  and  the  other  to  Josiah 
Coffield.  Wm.  D.  Rascoe." 

From  the  "  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Courier,"  Jan. 
12,  1838. 

"^1(J0  Reward. — Run  away  from  the  sub- 
scriber, his  negro  fellow,  John.  Hf  is  well  known 
about  the  eity  as  one  of  my  bread  carriers  :  has  a 
tcife  living  at  Mrs.  Weston's,  on  Hempstead. 
John  formerly  belonged  to  Mis.  Moor,  near  St 
Paul's  ehiircii  where  his  mother  stdl  lives,  and 
has  been  harbored  by  her  before. 

John  T.  Marshall, 
60,  Tradd-street." 

From  the  "  Newborn  (N.  C.)  Sentinel,"  March 
17,  1837. 

"  Ranaway,  Moses,  a  black  fellow,  about  40 
years  of  age — has  a  wife  in  Washington. 

Thomas  Bragg,  Sen. 
Warrenton,  N.  C." 

From  the  "  Richmond  (Va.)  Whig,"  June  30, 
1837. 

"  Ranaway,  my  man  Peter. — He  has  a  sister 
and  mother  in  New  Kent,  and  a  wife  about  fifteen 
or  eighteen  miles  above  Richmond,  at  or  about 
Taylorsville.  Theo.  A.  Lacy." 

From  the  "  New  Orleans  Bulletin,"  Feb.  7, 
1838. 

"  Ranaway,  my  negro  Philip,  aged  about  40 
years. — He  may  have  gone  to  St.  Louis,  as  he  has 
a  wife  there. 

W.  G.  Clark,  70  New  Levee." 

From  the  "  Georgian,"  Jan.  29,  1838. 
"  A  Reward  of  $5  will   be  paid  for  the  appre- 
hension of  his   negro  woman,  Diana.     Diana  is 
from  45  to   .')0  age;.     She    formerly   belonged  to 
Mr.  Nath.  Law,  of  Liberty  county,  lohere  her  hus- 


band still  lives.     She  will  endeavor  to  go  there 
perhaps.  D.  O'Bvrne." 

From  the  "  Richmond  (Va.)  Enquirer,"  Feb. 
20,  1838. 

"  ^10  Reward  for  a  negro  woman,  named  Sal- 
ly, 40  years  old.  We  have  just  reason  to  believe 
the  said  negro  to  be  now  lurking  on  the  James 
River  Canal,  or  in  the  Green  Spring  neighbor, 
hood,  where,  we  are  informed,  her  husband  re- 
sides.  The  above  reward  will  be  given  to  any 
person  securing  her. 

Polly  C.  Shields. 
Mount  Elba,  Feb.  19,  1838." 

"$50  Rcvvfard. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber, 
his  negro  man  Pauladore,  commonly  called  Paul. 
I  understand  Gen.  R.  Y.  Hayne  has  purchased 
his  wife  and  children  from  H.  L.  Pinckney,  Esq. 
and  has  them  now  on  his  plantation  at  Goose- 
creek,  where,  no  doubt,  the  fellow  is  frequently 
lurking.  T.  Davis." 

"  $25  Reward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber, 
a  negro  woman,  named  Matilda.  It  is  thought 
she  may  be  somewhere  up  James  River,  as  she 
was  claimed  as  a  wife  by  some  boatman  in  Gooch- 
land. J.  Alvis." 

"  Stop  the  Runaway  ! ! !— $25  Reward.  Ran- 
away from  the  Eagle  Tavern,  a  negro  fellow, 
named  Nat.  He  is  no  doiilit  attempting  to  follow 
his  loife,  who  was  lately  sold  to  a  speculator  named 
Redmond.  The  above  reward  will  be  paid  by 
Mrs.  Lucy  M.  Downman,  of  Sussex  county,  Va." 

Multitudes  of  advertisements  like  the  above  ap. 
pear  annually  in  the  southern  papers.  Reader, 
look  at  the  preceding  list — mark  the  unfeeling 
barbarity  with  which  their  masters  and  inistresses 
describe  the  struggles  and  perils  of  sundered  hus- 
bands and  wives,  parents  and  children,  in  their 
weary  midnight  travels  through  forests  and  rivers, 
wiih  torn  limbs  and  breaking  hearts,  seeking  the 
embraces  of  each  other's  love.  In  one  instance, 
a  mother  torn  from  all  her  children  and  taken  to 
a  remote  part  of  another  stale,  presses  her  way 
back  through  the  wilderness,  hundreds  of  miles, 
to  clasp  once  more  her  children  to  her  heart :  but, 
when  she  has  arrived  within  a  few  miles  of  them, 
in  the  same  county,  is  discovered,  seized,  dragged 
to  jail,  and  her  purchaser  told,  through  an  adver- 
tisement, that  slie  awaits  his  order.  But  wo  need 
not  trace  out  the  harrowing  details  already  before 
the  reader. 

Rev.  C.  S.  Renshaw,  of  Quincy,  Illinois,  who 
resided  some  time  in  Kentucky,  says; — 

"  I  was  told  the  following  fact  by  a  young  lady, 
daughter  of  a  slaveholder  in  Boone  county,  Ken- 
tucky, who  lived  within  half  a  mile  of  Mr.  Hughes' 
farm.  Hughes  and  Neil  traded  in  slaves  down 
the  river :  they  had  bought  up  a  part  of  their 
stock  in  the  upjier  counties  of  Kenluckv,  and 
brought  them  down  to  Louisville,  where  the  re- 
mainder  of  their  drove  was  in  jail,  waiting  their 
arrival.  Just  before  the  stermboat  put  ofT  f.nr  the 
low(T  country,  two  negro  women  were  offeri  d  for 
sale,  each  of  them  having  a  youiij;  child  at  tlio 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


167 


breast.  The  traders  bought  tliem,  took  their  babes  | 
from  their  arms,  and  offered  them  to  the  highest 
bidder ;  and  they  were  sold  for  one  dollar  apiece, 
whilst  the  stricken  parents  were  driven  on  board 
the  boat,  and  in  an  horn-  were  on  their  way  to  the 
New  Orleans  market.  You  are  aware  that  a 
young  babe  decreases  the  value  of  a  field  hand  in 
the  lower  country,  whilst  it  increases  her  value 
in  the  '  breeding  states.'  " 

Tiie  following  is  an  extract  from  an  address, 
published  by  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of  Kentucky, 
to  the  churches  under  their  care,  in  1835  : — 

"  Brothers  and  sisters,  parents  and  children, 
husbands  and  wives,  are  toin  asunder,  and  per. 
mitted  to  see  each  other  no  more.  These 
acts  are  daily  occurring  in  the  midst  of  us. 
The  shrieks  and  the  agony,  ofteii  witnessed  on 
such  occasions,  proclaim,  with  a  trumpet  tongue, 
the  iniquity  of  our  system.  Therf.  i«  not  a  neigh- 
borhood where  these  heart-rending  scenes  are  not 
displayed.  There  is,  not  a  village  or  road  that 
does  not  behold  the  sad  procession  of  manacled 
outcasts,  whose  mournful  countenances  tell  that 
they  are  exiled  by  force  from  all   that  thejr 

UEARTS   HOLD  DEAR." AddreSS,   p.    12. 

Professor  Ajnurevvs,  late  of  the  University  of 
North  Carolina,  in  his  recent  work  on  Slavery 
and  the  Slave  Trade,  page  147,  in  relating  a  con- 
versation with  a  slave-trader,  whom  he  met  near 
Washington  City,  says,  he  inquired, 

"  '  Do  you  often  buy  the  wife  without  the  hus- 
band ?'  'Yes,  VERY  often;  and  FREQUENT- 
LY, loo,  they  sell  me  the  mother  while  they  keep 
her  children.  I  have  often  known  them  take  away 
the  infant  from  its  mother^s  breast,  and  keep  it, 
while  they  sold  her.'  " 

The  following  sale  is  advertised  in  the  "  Geor- 
gia Journal,"  Jan.  2,  1838. 

"  Will  be  sold,  the  following  property,  to  wit : 

One Child,   by  the  name  of  James,  about 

eight  months  old,  levied  on  as  the  property  of 
Gabriel  Gunn." 

The  following  is  a  standing  advertisement  in 
the  Charleston  (S.  C.)  papers  : — 

"  120  Negroes  for  Sale  — The  subscriber  has 
just  arrived  from  Petersburg,  Virginia,  with  one 
hundred  and  twenty  likely  young  negroes  of  both 
sexes  and  every  description,  which  he  offers  for 
sale  on  the  most  reasonable  terms. 

"  The  lot  now  on  hand  consists  of  plough  boys, 
several  likely  and  well-qualified  house  servants  of 
both  sexes,  several  women  wilTi  children,  small 
girls  suitable  for  nurses,  and  several  small  boys 
without  their  mothers.  Planters  and  traders  are 
earnestly  requested  te  give  the  subscriber  a  call 
previously  to  making  purchases  elsewhere,  as  he 
is  enabled  and  will  sell  as  cheap,  or  cheaper,  than 
can  be  sold  by  any  other  person  in  the  trade. 
Benjamin  Davis. 

Hamburg,  S.  C.  Sept.  28,  1838." 

Extract  of  a  letter  to  a  member  of  Congress, 
from  a  friend  in  Mississippi,  published  in  the 
"Washington  Globe,"  June,  1837. 

"  The  times  are  truly  alarming  here.  Many 
plantations  «re  entirely  stripped  of  negroes  (pro- 
tection !)  and  horses,  by  the  marshal  or  sheriff. — 


Suits  are  multiplying — two  thousand  five  hundred 
in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  and  three 
thousand  in  Hinds  County  Court  " 

Testimony  of  Mr.  Silas  Stone,  of  Hudson, 
New  York.  Mr.  Stone  is  a  member  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  has  several  times  been  elected  an 
Assessor  of  the  city  of  Hudson,  and  for  three 
years  has  filled  the  office  of  Treasurer  of  the 
County,  In  the  fall  of  1807,  Mr.  Stone  witness- 
ed a  sale  of  slaves,  in  Charleston,  South  Caroli- 
na, which  he  thus  describes  in  a  communication 
recently  received  from  him. 

"  I  saw  droves  of  the  poor  fellows  driven  to 
the  slave  markets  kept  in  different  parts  of  the 
city,  one  of  which  I  visited.  The  arrangements 
of  this  place  appeared  something  like  our  north- 
ern horse-markets,  having  sheds,  or  barns,  in  the 
rear  of  a  public  house,  where  alcohol  was  a 
handy  ingredient  to  stimulate  the  spirit  of  jockey- 
ing. As  the  traders  appeared,  lots  of  negroes 
were  brought  from  the  stables  into  the  bar  room, 
and  by  a  flourish  of  the  whip  were  made  to  as- 
sume an  active  appearance.  '  What  will  you 
give  for  these  fellows  ?'  '  How  old  are  they  ? 
'  Are  they  healthy  ?'  '  Are  they  quick  ?'  &,c. 
at  the  same  time  the  owner  would  give  them  a 
cut  with  a  cowhide,  and  tell  them  to  dance  and 
jump,  cursing  and  swearing  at  them  if  they  did 
not  move  quick.  In  fact  all  the  transactions  in 
buying  and  selling  slaves,  partakes  of  jockey- 
ship,  as  much  as  buying  and  selling  horses.  There 
was  as  little  regard  paid  to  the  feelings  of  the 
former  as  we  witness  in  the  latter. 

"  From  these  scenes  I  turn  to  another,  which 
took  place  in  front  of  the  noble  '  Exchange 
Buildings,'  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  On  the  left 
side  of  the  steps,  as  you  leave  the  main  hall,  im- 
mediately under  the  windows  of  that  proud  build- 
ing, was  a  stage  built,  on  which  a  mother  with 
eight  children  were  placed,  and  sold  at  auction. 
I  watched  their  emotions  closely,  and  saw  their 
feelings  were  in  accordance  to"  human  nature. 
The  sale  began  with  the  eldest  child,  who,  being 
struck  off  to  the  highest  bidder,  was  taken  from 
the  stage  or  platform  by  the  purchaser,  and  led 
to  his  wagon  and  stowed  away,  to  be  carried 
into  the  country ;  the  second,  and  third  were  also 
sold,  and  so  until  seven  of  the  children  were  torn 
from  their  mother,  while  her  discernment  told 
her  they  were  to  be  separated  probably  forever, 
causing  in  that  mother  the  most  agonizing  sobs 
and  cries,  in  which  the  children  seemed  to  share. 
The  scene  beggars  description ;  suffice  it  to  say,  it 
was  sufficient  to  cause  tears  from  one  at  least 
'  whose  skin  was  not  colored  like  their  own,'  and 
I  was  not  ashamed  to  give  vent  to  them." 

THE  "  protection"  AFFORDED  BY    '  PUBLIC  OPINION* 
TO  CHILDHOOD    AND    OLD    AGE. 

In  the  "  New  Orleans  Bee."  May  31,  1837,  Mr. 
P.  Bahi,  gires  notice  that  he  has  committed  to 
JAIL  as  a  runaway   '  a   Utile  negro  aged  about 

SEVEN    YEARS.' 

In  the  "  Mobile  Advertiser,"  Sept.  13,  1838, 
William  Magee,  Sheriff,  gives  notice  that  George 
Walton,  Esq.  Mayor  of  the  city  has  committed  to 
jail  as  a  runaway  slave,  Jordan,  about  twelve 


168 


Ohjcciions  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


YEARS  OLD,  and  the  Sheriff  proceeds  to  give  no- 
tice that  if  no  one  claims  him  the  boy  will  be 
sold  as  a  slave  to  pay  jail  fees. 

In  the  ''  Memphis  (Tcnii.)  Gazette,"  May  2, 

1837,  W.  H.  Montgomery  advertises  that  he 
will  sell  at  auction  a  boy  aged  14,  another  aged 
12,  AND  A  GIRL  lO,  to  pay  the  debts  of  their  de- 
ceased  master. 

"  B.  F.  Chapman,  Sheriff,  Natchitoches  (La.) 
advertises  in  the  '  Herald,'  of  May  17,  1837, 
that  he  has  ''  committed  to  jail,  as  a  runaway  a 
negro  boy  between  11  and  12  years  oe  age." 

In  the   "  Augusta   (Ga.)    Chronicle,"  Fob.  13, 

1838,  R.  H.  Jones,  jailor,  says,  "  Brought  to  jail 
a  negro  woman  Sarah,  she  is  about  60  or  65  years 
old." 

In  the  "  Winchester  Virginian,"  August  8, 
1837,  Mr.  R.  II.  Menifee,  offers  ten  dollars  re- 
ward to  any  one  who  will  catch  and  lodge  in  jail, 
Abram  and  Nelly,  ahout  60  years  old,  so  that  he 
can  get  them  again. 

J.  Snowden,  Jailor,  Columbia,  S.  C.  gives 
notice  in  the  "  Telescope,"  Nov,  18,  1837,  that  he 
has  committed  to  jail  as  a  runaway  slave,  "  Caro- 
lincjifiy  years  of  age.'" 

Y.  S.  Pickard,  Jailor,  Savannah,  Georgia, 
gives  notice  in  the  "  Georgian,"  June  22,  1837, 
that  he  has  taken  up  for  a  runaway  and  lodged 
m  jail  Charles,  60  years  of  age. 

In  the  Savannah  "  Georgian,"  April  12,  1837? 
Mr.  J.  Cuyler,  says  he  will  give  five  dollars,  to 
any  one  who  will  catch  and  bring  back  to  him 
Saman,  an  old  negro  man,  and  grey,  and  has  only 
one  eye." 

In    the  "  Macon    (Ga.)  Telegraph,"  Jan.    15, 

1839,  Messrs.  T.  and  L.  Napier,  advertise  for 
eale  Nancy,  a  woman  65  years  of  age,  and  Peggy, 
a  v;oman  65  years  of  age. 

The  following  is  from  the  "  Columbian  (Ga.) 
Enquirer,"  March  8,  1838. 

"  ^25  Reward. — Ranaway,  a  Negro  Woman 
named  MATILDA,  aged  about  30  or  35  years. 
Also,  on  the  same  night,  a  Negro  Fellow  of  small 
size,  VERY  AGED,  stoopshouldered,  who  walks  very 
DECREiiiiLV,  is  supposed  to  have  gone  off.  His 
name  is  DAVE,  and  he  has  claimed  Matilda  for 
wife.     It  may  be  they  have  gone  off  together. 

''  I  will  give  twenty-five  dollars  for  the  woman, 
delivered  to  me  in  Muscogee  count}-,  or  confiiied 
in  any  jail  so  that  I  can  get  her. 

Moses  Butt." 

J.  B.  Randall,  Jailor,  Cobb  (Co.)  Georgia,  ad- 
vertises an  old  negro  man,  in  the  "  Milledgeville 
Recorder,"  Nov.  6,  1838. 

"  A  NEGRO  MAN,  has  been  lodged  in  the 
comnnm  Jail  of  this:  county,  who  says  his  name  is 
JuriTi'R.  lie  has  lost  all  his  front  teeth  abox^e 
and  below — speal.s  very  indistinctly,  is  very  lame. 
So  that  he  can  hardly  toall:.''^ 

Rev.  Charles  Stewart  Rensiiaw,  of  Quincy, 


Illinois,  who  spent  some  time  in  slave  states, 
speaking  of  his  residence  in  Kentucky,  says  : — 
"  One  Sabbath  morning,  whilst  riding  to  meet. 
ing  near  Burlington,  Boone  Go.  Kentucky,  in 
company  with  Mr.  Willis,  a  teacher  of  sacred 
music  and  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
I  was  startled  at  mingled  shouts  and  screams, 
proceeding  from  an  old  log  house,  some  distance 
from  the  road  side.  As  we  passed  it,  some  five 
or  six  boys  from  12  to  15  j-ears  of  age,  came  out, 
some  of  them  cracking  whips,  followed  by  two 
colored  boys  crying.  I  asked  Mr.  W.  what  the 
scene  meant.  '  Oh,'  he  replied,  '■  those  boys  have 
been  whipping  the  niggers  ;  that  is  the  way  we 
bring  slaves  into  subjection  in  Kentucky — we 
let  llie  children  beat  them.'  The  boys  returned 
again  into  the  house,  and  again  their  shouting 
and  stamping  was  heard,  but  ever  and  anon  a 
scream  of  agony  that  would  not  be  drowned,  rose 
above  the  uproar  ;  thus  they  continued  tiU  the 
sounds  were  lost  in  the  distance." 

Well  did  Jefferson  say,  that  the  children  of 
slaveholders  are  'nursed,  educated,  and  dailv 
exercised  in  tyranny.' 

The  '  protection'  thrown  arovmd  a  mother's 
yearnings,  and  the  helplessness  of  childhood  by 
the  '  public  opinion'  of  slaveholders,  is  shown  by 
thousands  of  advertisements  of  which  the  follow- 
ing are  samples. 

From  the  "  New  Orleans  Bulletin,"  June  2. 

"  NEGROES  FOR  SALE.— A  negro  woman 
24  years  of  age,  and  has  tv.-o  children,  one  eight 
and  the  other  three  years.  Said  negroes  will  be 
sold  separately  or  together  as  desired.  The 
woman  is  a  good  seamstress.  She  will  be  sold 
low  for  cash,  or  exchanged  for  groceries.  For 
terms  apply  to  Mayiiew  Bliss,  &,  Co. 

1  Front  Levee." 

From  the  ''  Georgia  Journal,"  Nov.  7. 
"  TO  BE  SOLD— One    negro  girl   about  18 
months  old,  belonging   to  the  estate  of  Wilham 
Chambers,  dec'd.     Sold  for  the  purpose  of  distri- 
bution .' .'  Jethro  Dean,       ( 

Samuel  Beall,     (,  ^^  °^^- 

From  the  "  Natchez  Courier,"  April  2,  1838. 

"  NOTICE— Is  hereby  given  that  the  under- 
signed pursuant  to  a  certain  Deed  of  Trust  will 
on  Thursday  the  12th  day  of  April  next,  expose 
to  sale  at  the  Court  House,  to  the  highest  bidder 
for  cash,  the  following  Negro  slaves,  to  wit  ; 
Fann}^  aged  about 28  years;  Mary,  aged  about  7 
years;  Amanda,  aged  about  3  months  ;  Wilson, 
aged  about  9  months. 

"  Said  slaves,  to  be  sold  for  the  satisfaction  of 
the  debt  secured  in  said  Deed  of  Trust. 

W.  J.  Minor." 

From  the  "  Milledgeville  Journal,"  Dec.  26, 
1837. 

"  EXECUTOR'S  SALE. 

"  Agreeable  to  an  order  of  the  court  of  Wil- 
kinson coimty,  will  bo  sold  on  the  first  Tuesday 
in  April  next,  before  the  Court-lioiisc  door  in  the 
town  of  Irwington,  ONE  NEGRO  GUll,  about 
l700  years  old,   named    Rachel,   belonging   to  the 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


169 


estate  of  William  Chambers  dec'd.     Sold  for  the 
benefit  of  the  heirs  and  en  ditors  of  said  estate. 

Samuel,  Bell, 

Jesse    Peacock, 


Ex'orsP 


From  the  "  Alexandria  (D.  C.)  Gazette"  Dec. 
19. 

"  I  will  give  the  highest  cash  price  for  likely  ne- 
groes, from  lO  to  25  years  of  age. 

Geo.  Kephart.'' 

From  the  "  Southern  Whig,"  March  2, 1838.— 
"  WIIjL  be  sold  in  La  Grange,  Troup  county,  one 
negro  girl,  by  the  name  of  Charity,  aged  about 
10  or  \'2  years ;  as  the  property  of  Littleton  L. 
Burk,  to  satisfy  a  mortgage  ii.  fa.  from  Troup  In- 
ferior Court,  in  favor  of  Daniel  S.  Robertson 
vs.  said  Burk.'' 

From  the  "  Petersburgli  (Va.)  Constellation," 
March  18,  1837. 

"  50  Negroes  wanted  immediately. — The  sub- 
lieriber  will  give  a  good  market  price  for  fifty  like- 
ly negroes,  from  10  to  3J  years  of  age. 

Henry  Davis." 

The  follov/ing  is  an  extract  of  a  letter  from  a 
gentleman,'  a  native  and  still  a  resident  of  one  of 
the  slave  states,  and  still  a  slaveholder.  He  is 
an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  his  letter  is 
now  before  us,  and  his  name  is  with  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Am.  Anti-slavery  Society. 

"  Permit  me  to  say,  that  around  this  very 
place  where  I  reside,  slaves  arc  brought  almost 
constantly,  and  sold  to  Miss,  and  Orleans ;  that 
it  is  usual  to  part  families  forever  by  such  sales 
— the  parents  from  the  children  and  the  children 
I'rom  the  parents,  of  every  size  and  age.  A 
mother  was  taken  not  long  since,  in  this  town, 
from  a  sucking  child,  and  sold  to  the  lower 
country.  Three  young  men  I  saw  some  time  ago 
(aken  from  this  place  in  chains — while  the  mother 
of  one  of  them,  old  and  decrepid,  followed  with 
tears  and  prayers  her  son,  18  or  20  miles,  and 
bid  him  a  final  farewell .'  O,  thou  Great  Eter- 
nal, is  this  justice  I  is  this  equity  1 1 — Equal 
Rights ! !" 

Wc  subjoin  a  few  miscellaneous  facts  illus- 
trating the  iNHt^siANiTY  of  slaveholding  'public 
opinion.' 

The  shocking  indiiference  manifested  at  the 
death  of  slaves  as  human  beings,  contrasted  with 
the  grief  at  their  loss  as  property,  is  a  true  index 
to  the  public  opinion. of  slaveholders. 

Colonel  Oliver  of  Louisville,  lost  a  valuable 
race-horse  by  the  explosion  of  the  steamer  Oro- 
noko,  a  few  months  since  in  the  Mississippi  river. 
Eight  human  beings  whom  he  held  as  slaves 
were  also  killed  by  the  explosion.  They  were 
the-ridcrs  and  grooms  of  his  race-horses.  A 
Louisville  paper  thus  speaks  of  the  occurrence  : 

♦'  Colonel  Oliver  sufft  red  severely  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  the  Oronoko.  He  lost  eight  of  his  rub- 
bers and  riders,  and  his  horse,  Joe  Kearney, 
which  he  had  sold  the  night  before  for  553,000." 

Mr.  King,  of  the  New  York  American,  makes 


the  following  just  comment  on  the  barbarity  of 
the  above  paragraph  : 

"  Would  any  one,  in  reading  this  paragraph  from 
an  evening  paper,  conjecture  that  these  '  eight 
rubbers  and  riders,'  that  together  with  a  horse, 
are  merely  mentioned  as  a  '  loss'  to  their  owner, 
were  human  beings — immortal  as  the  writer  who 
thus  brutalizes  them,  and  perhaps  cherishing  life 
as  much?  In  this  view,  perhaps,  the  'eight' 
lost  as  much  as  Colonel  Oliver." 

The  following  is  from  the  "Charleston  (S.  C.) 
Patriot,"  Oct.  18. 

"  Loss  of  Property  ! — Since  I  have  been  here, 
(Rice  Hope,  N.  Santee,)  I  have  seen  much  mi- 
sery, and  much  of  human  suffering.  The  loss  of 
PROPERTY  has  been  immense,  not  only  on  South 
Santee,  but  also  on  this  river.  Mr.  Shoolbrcd 
has  lost,  (according  to  the  statement  of  the  phy- 
sician,) forty-six  negroes — the  majority  lost  being 
the  primest  hands  he  had — bricklayers,  carpen- 
ters, blacksmiths  and  Coopers.  Mr.  Wm.  Ma- 
zy ck  has  lost  35  negroes.  Col.  Thomas  Pinknc}-, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  40,  and  many  other  plant. 
ers,  10  to  20  on  each  plantation.  Mrs.  Elias  Harry, 
adjoining  the  plantation  of  Mr.  Lucas,  has  lost 
up  to  date,  32  ner''^<"s — the  hest  pari  of  her  prim- 
est negroes  on  hei  jjiantation." 

From  the  "  Natchez(Mlss.)  Daily  Free  Trader," 
Feb.  12,  1838. 

"  Found. — A  negro's  head  was  picked  up  on 

THE  RAIL-ROiVD  YESTERDAY,  WHICH  THE  OWNER 
CAN  HAVE  BY  CALLING  AT  THIS  OFFICE  AND  PAYING 
FOR    THE    ADVERTISEMENT." 

The  way  in  which  slaveholding  '  public  opi- 
nion' protects  a  poor  female  lunatic  is  illustrated 
in  the  following  advertisement  in  the  "Fayette- 
viUe  (N.  C.)  Observer,"  June  27,  1838  : 

"  Taken  and  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  girl 
named  Nancy,  who  is  supposed  to  belong  to 
Spencer  P.  Wright,  of  the  State  of  Georgia. 
She  is  about  30  years  of  age,  and  is  a  luna- 
TIC.  The  owner  is  requested  to  come  forward, 
prove  property,  pay  charges,  and  take  her  away, 

or  SHE  WILL  BE  SOLD  TO  PAY  HER  JAIL  Fs;ES. 

FRED'K  HOME,  Jailor." 
A  late  Prospectus  of  the  South  CaroUna  Me. 
dical  College,  located  in  Charleston,  contains  the 
following  passage : — 

"  Some  advantages  of  a  peculiar  character  are 
connected  with  this  Ins^titution,  which  it  may  be 
proper  to  point  out.  No  place  in  the  United 
States  offers  as  great  opportunities  for  the  acqui. 
sition  of  anatomical  knowledge,  subjects  being 

OBTAINED  FROM  AMONG  THE  COLORED  POPULATION  IN 
SUFFICIENT  NUMBER  FOR  EVERY  PURPOSE,  AND  PRO. 
PER  DISSECTIONS  CARRIED  ON  WITHOUT  OFFENDING 
ANY  INDIVIDUALS  IN  THE  COMMUNITY  !  I" 

Without  offending  any  individuals  in  the  com 
munity .'  More  than  half  the  population  of 
Charleston,  we  believe,  is  '  colored  ;'  their  graves 
may  be  ravaged,  their  dead  may  be  dug  up,  drag- 
ged into  the  dissecting  room,  exposed  to  the  gaze, 
heartless  gibes,  and  experimenting  knives,  of  a 
crowd  of  inexDeriencjed  operators,  who  are  given  to 


170 


ObjectioTis  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


understand  in  the  prospectus,  that,  if  tlicy  do  not 
acquire  manual  dexterity  in  dissection,  it  will  be 
wholly  their  own  fault,  in  neglecting  to  improve 
the  unrivalled  advantages  afforded  by  the  institu- 
tion — since  each  can  have  as  many  human  bodies 
as  he  pleases  to  experiment  upon — and  as  to  the 
fathers,  mothers,  husbands,  wives,  brothers, 
and  sisters,  of  those  whom  they  cut  to  pieces 
from  dav  to  day,  why,  they  are  not  '  individuals 
in  tlie  community,'  but  '  property,'  and  however 
their  feelings  may  be  tortured,  the  '  public  opi- 
nion' of  slaveholders  is  entirely  too  '  chivalrous' 
to  degrade  itself  by  caring  for  them  ! 

The  following  which  has  been  for  some  time  a 
standing  advertisement  of  the  South  Carolina 
Medical  College,  in  the  Charleston  papers,  is  ano- 
ther index  of  the  same  '  public  opinion'  toward 
slaves.     We  give  an  extract : — 

"  Surgery  of  the  Medical  College  of  South  Car. 
olina,  Queen  st. — The  Faculty  inform  their  pro- 
fessional brethren,  and  the  public,  that  they  have 
established  a  Surgery,  at  the  Old  College,  Queen 

street,      FOR     THE     TREATMENT    OF    NEfinoF.S,    wllioh 

will  continue  in  operation,  duriiiaf  the  session  of 
the  College,  say  from  first  November,  to  the  fif. 
teenth  of  Marcli  ensuing. 

"  The  object  of  the  Faculty,  in  opening  this  Sur- 
gery, is  to  collect  as  many  interesting  cases,  as 
possible,  for  the  benefit  and  instruction  of  their 
pupils — at  the  same  time,  they  indulge  the  hope, 
that  it  may  not  only  prove  an  accommodation,  but 
also  a  matter  of  economy  to  the  public.  They 
would  respectfully  call  the  attention  of  planters, 
living  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city,  to  this  subject ; 
particularly  such  as  may  have  servants  laboring 
under  Surgical  diseases.  Such  persons  of  color 
as  may  not  be  able  to  pay  for  Medical  advice,  will 
lie  attended  to  gratis,  at  stated  hours,  as  often  as 
may  be  necessary. 

"The  Faculty  take  this  opportunity  of  soliciting 
the  co-operation  of  such  of  their  professional 
brethren,  as  arc  favorable  to  their  objects.  " 

"  The  first  thing  that  strikes  the  reader  of  the 
ddvertisement  is,  that  this  Surgery  is  established 
exclusively  '  for  the  treatment  of  negroes,'  and  if 
he  knows  little  of  the  hearts  of  slaveholders  to- 
wards their  slaves,  he  charitably  supposes,  that 
they  '  feel  the  dint  of.  pity,'  for  the  poor  sufferers 
and  have  founded  this  institution  as  a  special 
charity  for  their  relief.  But  the  delusion  va- 
nishes as  he  reads  on ;  the  professors  take  special 
care  that  no  such  derogator}  inference  shall  be 
drawn  from  their  advertisement.  They  give  us 
the  three  reasons  which  have  induced  them  to 
open  this  '  Surgery  for  the  treatment  of  negroes.' 
The  first  and  main  one  is,  'to  collect  as  many 
interesting  cases  as  possible  for  the  benefit  and 
instruction  of  their  pupils' — another  is,  '  the  hope 
that  it  may  prove  an  accommodation,'' — and  the 
third,  that  it  may  be  'a  matter  of  economy  to 
the  public'  Another  reason,  doubtless,  and  a  con- 
trolling one,  though  the  professors  are  silent  about 
it,  is  that  a  large  collection  of  '  interesting  surgi-  [ 


cal  cases,'  always  on  hand,  would  prove  a  power- 
ful attraction  to  students,  and  greatly  increase 
the  popularity  of  the  institution.  In  brit.f,  then, 
the  motives  of  its  founders,  the  professors,  were 
these,  the  accommodation  of  their  students — the 
accommodation  of  the  public  (which  means,  the 
uihites)— and  the  accommodation  of  slaveholders 
who  have  on  their  hands  disabled  slaves,  that 
would  make  '  interesting  cases,'  for  surgical  ope- 
ration in  the  presence  of  the  pupils — to  these 
reasons  we  may  add  the  accommodation  of  the 
Medical  Institution  and  the  accommodation  of 
themselves  J  Not  a  syllable  about  the  acco7nmodn. 
tion  of  the  hopeless  sufferers,  writhing  with  the 
agony  of  those  gun  shot  wounds,  fractured  sculls, 
broken  limbs  and  ulcerated  backs  which  constitute 
the  'interesting  cases'  for  the  professors  to  'show 
off*  before  their  pupils,  and,  as  practice  makes 
perfect,  for  the  students  themselves  to  try  their 
hands  at  by  way  of  experiment. 

Why,  we  ask,  was  this  surgery  established  '  fnr 
the  treatment  of  negroes'  alone  ?  Why  were  these 
'  interesting  cases'  selected  from  that  class  exclu- 
sively? No  man  who  knows  the  feeling  of  slave- 
holders towards  slaves  will  be  at  a  loss  for  the 
reason.  'Public  opinion'  would  tolerate  surgical  ex- 
periments, operations,  processes,  performed  upon 
them,  which  it  would  execrate  if  performed  upon 
their  master  or  other  whites.  As  the  great  object  in 
collecting  the  disabled  negroes  is  to  have  '  inter- 
esting cases'  for  the  students,  the  professors  who 
perform  the  operations  will  of  course  endeavor  to 
make  them  as  '  interesting'  as  possible.  The  in- 
struction of  the  student  is  the  immediate  object, 
and  if  the  professors  can  accomplish  it  best  bv 
protracting  the  operation,  pausing  to  explain  the 
different  processes,  &c.  the  subject  is  only  a  negro, 
and  what  is  his  protracted  agony,  that  it  should 
restrain  the  professor  from  making  the  case  as 
'  interesting'  as  possible  to  the  students  by  so  using 
his  knife  as  will  give  them  the  best  knowledge  of 
the  parts,  and  the  process,  however  it  may  pro- 
tract or  augment  the  pain  of  the  subject.  The 
end  to  be  accomplished  is  the  instruction  of  the 
student,  operations  upon  the  negroes  are  the  means 
to  the  end ;  that  tells  the  whole  stor}^ — and  he  who 
knows  the  hearts  of  slaveholders  and  has  com- 
mon sense,  however  short  the  allowance,  can  find 
the  way  to  his  conclusions  without  a  lantern. 

By  an  advertisement  of  the  same  Medical  In- 
stitution, dated  November  12,  1838,  and  publish- 
ed in  the  Charleston  papers,  it  appears  that  an  '  in- 
firmary has  been  opened  in  connection  with  the 
college.'  The  professors  manifest  a  great  desire 
that  the  mastersof  servants  should  send  in  the  r  dis- 
abled slaves,  and  as  an  inducement  to  the  furnish- 
ing of  such  interesting  cases  say,  all  medical  and 
surgical  aid  will  be  offered  without  making  them 
liable  to  any  professional  chr.rges.     Disinterested 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


171 


bounty,  pity,  sympathy,  philanthropy  !  However 
difficult  or  numerous  the  surgical  cases  of  slaves 
thus  put  into  their  hands  by  the  masters,  they 
charge  not  a  cent  for  their  professional  services. 
Their  yearnings  over  human  distress  are  so  in- 
tense, that  tliey  beg  the  privilege  of  performing  all 
operations,  and  furnishing  all  the  medical  atten- 
tion needed,  gratis,  feeling  that  the  relief  of 
misery  is  its  own  reward  !  ! !  But  we  have  put 
down  our  exclamation  points  too  soon — upon  read- 
ing the  whole  of  the  advertisement  we  find  the 
professors  conclude  it  with  the  following  para- 
graph :— 

"  The  SOLE  OBJECT  of  the  faculty  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  an  institution  being  to  promote 
the  interest  of  Medical  Education  within  their 
native  State  and  City." 

In  the  "  Charleston  (South  Carolina)  Mercury" 
of  October  12,  1838,  w^  find  an  advertisement  of 
half  a  column,  by  a  Dr.  T.  Stillman,  setting  forth 
the  merits  of  another  '  Medical  Infirmary,'  under 
his  own  special  supervision,  at  No.  110  Church 
street,  Charleston.  The  doctor,  after  inveighing 
loudly  against  '  men  totally  ignorant  of  medical 
science,'  who  flood  the  country  with  quack  nos- 
trums backed  up  by  '  fabricated  proofs  of  mira- 
culous cures,'  proceeds  to  enumerate  the  diseases 
to  which  his  '  Infirmary'  is  open,  and  to  which 
his  practice  will  be  mainly  confined.  Appreciat- 
ing the  importance  of  '  interesting  cases,'  as  a 
stock  in  trade,  on  which  to  commence  his  experi- 
ments, he  copies  the  example  of  the  medical  pro- 
fessors, and  advertises  for  them.  But,  either 
from  a  keener  sense  of  justice,  or  more  generosi- 
ty, or  greater  confidence  in  his  skill,  or  for  some 
other  reason,  he  proposes  to  buy  tip  an  assort- 
ment of  damaged  negroes,  given  over,  as  incura- 
ble, by  others,  and  to  make  such  his  '  interesting 
cases,'  instead  of  experimenting  on  those  who  are 
the  '  property'  of  others. 

Dr.  Stillman  closes  his  advertisement  with  the 
following  notice  : — 

"To  Planters  and  others. — Wanted  fifty  ne. 
groes.  Any  person  having  sick  negroes,  consid- 
ered incurable  by  their  respective  physicians,  and 
wishing  to  dispose  of  them.  Dr.  S.  will  pay  cash 
for  negroes  affected  with  scrofula  or  king's  evil, 
confirmed  hypocondriasm,  apoplexy,  diseases  of 
the  liver,  kidneys,  spleen,  stomach  and  intestines, 
bladder  and  its  appendages,  diarrhea,  dysentery, 
&c.  The  highest  cash  price  will  be  paid  on  appli- 
cation as  above." 

The  absolute  barbarism  of  a  '  public  opinion' 
which  not  only  tolerates,  but  produces  such 
advertisements  as  this,  was  outdone  by  nothing 
in  the  dark  ages.  If  the  reader  has  a  heart 
of  flosh,  he  can  feel  it  without  help,  and  if  he 
has  not,  comment  will  not  create  it.  The  total 
indifference  of  slaveholders  to  such  a  cold  blood- 
ed proposition,  their  utter  unconsciousness  of  the 


paralysis  of  heart,  and  death  of  sympathy,  and 
every  feeling  of  common  humanity  for  the  slave, 
which  it  reveals,  is  enough,  of  itself  to  show  that 
the  tendency  of  the  spirit  of  slaveholding  is,  to 
kill  in  the  sou]  whatever  it  touches.  It  has  no 
eyes  to  see,  nor  ears  to  hear,  nor  mind  to  under- 
stand, nor  heart  to  feel  for  its  victims  as  human 
beings.  To  show  that  the  above  indication  of 
the  savage  state  is  not  an  index  of  individual 
feeling,  but  of  '  public  opinion,'  it  is  sufficient  to 
say,  that  it  appears  to  be  a  standing  advertise- 
ment in  the  Charleston  Mercury,  the  leading  po 
litical  paper  of  South  Carolina,  the  organ  of  the 
Honorables  John  C.  Calhoun,  Robert  Barnwell 
Rhett,  Hugh  S.  Legare,  and  others  regarded  as 
the  elite  of  her  statesmen  and  literati.  Besides, 
candidates  for  popular  favor,  like  the  doctor  who 
advertises  for  the  fifty  'incurables,'  take  special 
care  to  conciliate,  rather  than  outrage,  '  public 
opinion.'  Is  the  doctor  so  ignorant  of  '  public 
opinion'  in  his  own  city,  that  he  has  unwittingly 
committed  violence  upon  it  in  his  advertisement? 
We  trow  not.  The  same  '  public  opinion'  which 
gave  birth  to  the  advertisement  of  doctor  Still- 
man, and  to  those  of  thw  professors  in  both  the 
medical  institutions,  founded  the  Charleston 
'  Work  House' — a  soft  name  for  a  Moloch  temple 
dedicated  to  torture,  and  reeking  with  blood,  in 
the  midst  of  the  city;  to  which  masters  and 
mistresses  send  their  slaves  of  both  sexes  to  be 
stripped,  tied  up,  and  cut  with  the  lash  till  the 
blood  and  mangled  flesh  flow  to  their  feet,  or  to 
be  beaten  and  bruised  with  the  terrible  paddle,  or 
forced  to  climb  the  tread-mill  till  nature  sinks,  or 
to  experience  other  nameless  torments. 

The  "Vicksburg  (Miss.)  Register,"  Dec.  27, 
1838,  contains  the  following  item  of  information  : 

"  Ardor  in  Betting. — Two  gentlemen,  at  a 
tavern,  having  summoned  the  waiter,  the  poor 
fellow  had  scarcely  entered,  when  he  fell  down 
in  a  fit  of  apoplexy.  '  He's  dead !'  exclaimed 
one.  '  He'll  come  to  !'  replied  the  other.  '  Dead, 
for  five  hundred  !'  '  Done  !'  retorted  the  second. 
The  noise  of  the  fall,  and  the  confusion  which 
followed,  brought  up  the  landlord,  who  called  out 
to  fetch  a  doctor.  '  No !  no  !  we  must  have  no 
interference — there's  a  bet  depending!'  'But, 
sir,  I  shall  lose  a  valuable  servant  I'  '  Never 
mind  !  you  can  put  him  down  in  the  bill !'  " 

About  the  time  the  Vicksburg  paper  containing 
the  above  came  to  hand,  we  received  a  letter 
from  N.  P.  Rogers,  Esq.  of  Concord,  N.  H.  the 
editor  of  the  '  Herald  of  Freedom,'  from  which 
the  following  is  an  extract : 

''  Some  thirty  years  ago,  I  think  it  was.  Col. 
Thatcher,  of  Maine,  a  lawyer,  was  in  Virginia, 
on  business,  and  was  there  invited  to  dine  at  a 
public  house,  with  a  company  of  the  gentry  of 
the  south.  The  place  I  forget — the  fact  was  told 
me  by  George  Kimball,  Esq.  now  of  Alton,  Illi. 
nois,  who  had  the  story  from  Col.  Thatcher  him- 


172 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


self.  Among  the  servants  \vaiting  was  a  young 
negro  man,  whose  beautiful  person,  obliging  and 
assiduous  temper,  and  his  activity  and  grace  in 
serving,  made  him  a  favorite  with  the  company. 
The  diimer  lasted  into  the  evening,  and  the  wine 
passed  freely  about  the  table.  At  length,  one  of 
the  gentlemen,  who  was  pretty  highly  excited 
with  wine,  became  unfortunately  incensed,  either 
at  some  trip  of  the  young  slave,  in  waiting,  or  at 
some  other  cause  happening  when  the  slave  was 
within  his  reach.  He  seized  the  long-necked 
wine  bottle,  and  struck  the  young  man  suddenly 
in  the  temple,  and  felled  him  dead  upon  the  floor. 
The  fall  arrested,  for  a  moment,  the  festivities  of 
the  table.  '  Devilish  unlucky,'  exclaimed  one. 
'The  gentleman  is  very  unfortunate,' cried  an- 
other. '  Really  a  loss,'  said  a  third,  &c.  &,c. 
The  body  was  dragged  from  the  dining  hall,  and 
the  feast  went  on  ;  and  at  the  close,  one  of  the 
gentlemen,  and  the  very  one,  I  believe,  whose 
hand  had  done  the  homieide,  shouted,  in 
bacchanalian  bravery,  and  southern  generosity, 
amid  the  broken  glasses  and  fragments  of  chairs, 
'  Landlord  !  put  the  nioger  into  ruii  bill  !' 
This  was  that  mmdrred  young  man's  requiem 
and  funeral  service." 

Mr.  Georor  a.  Avery,  a  merchant  in  Roches, 
ter,  New  York,  and  an  elder  in  the  P'ourth  Prcs. 
byterian  Church  in  that  city,  who  resided  four 
years  in  Virginia,  gives  the  following  testimony: 

"  I  knew  a  young  man  who  had  been  out  hunt- 
ing, and  returning  with  some  of  his  friends,  see- 
ing a  negro  man  in  the  road,  at  a  little  distance, 
deliberately  drew  up  his  rifle,  and  shot  him  dead. 
This  was  done  without  the  slightest  provocation, 
or  a  word  passing.  This  young  man  passed 
through  the  form  of  a  trial,  and,  although  it  was 
not  even  pretended  by  his  counsel  that  he  was 
not  guilty  of  the  act,  deliberately  and  wantonly 
perpetrated,  he  teas  acquitted.  It  was  urged  by 
his  counsel,  that  he  was  a  youvg  man,  (about  20 
years  of  age,)  had  no  malicious  intention,  his 
mother  was  a  widow,  &c.  &c." 

Mr.  Benjamin  Clendenon,  of  Colerain,  Lan- 
caster county,  Pennsylvania,  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  gives  the  following  testimony  : 

''  Three  years  ago  the  coming  month,  I  took 
a  journey  of  about  seventy-five  miles  from  home, 
through  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  and  a 
email  part  of  Delaware.  Calling  one  day,  near 
noon,  at  Georgetown  Cross-Roads,  I  found  my- 
self surrounded  in  the  tavern  by  slaveholders. 
Among  other  subjects  of  conversation,  their  hu- 
man cattle  came  in  for  a  share.  One  of  the  com- 
pany, a  middle-aged  man,  then  living  with  a 
second  wife,  acknowledged,  that  after  the  death 
of  his  first  wife,  he  lived  in  a  state  of  concubinage 
with  a  female  slave;  but  when  the  time  drew 
near  for  the  taking  of  a  second  wife,  he  found  it 
expedient  to  remove  the  slave  from  the  premises. 
The  same  person  gave  an  account  of  a  female 
slave  he  formerly  held,  who  had  a  propensity  for 
Eome  one  ])ursuit,  I  think  the  attendance  of  re- 
ligious meetings.  On  a  certain  occasion,  ahe 
presented  her  petition  to  him,  asking  for  this  in- 
dulgence ;  he  refused — she  importuned — and  he, 
with  sovereign  indignation,  seized  a  chair,  and 
with  a  blow  upon  the  head,  knocked  her  sense- 


less upon  the  floor.  The  Fame  person,  for  somo 
act  of  disobedience,  on  the  part,  I  think,  of  the 
same  slave,  when  employed  in  stacking  straw, 
felled  her  to  the  eartli  with  the  handle  of  2,  pitch 
fork.  Ail  these  transactions  were  related  with 
the  utmo.tt  composure,  in  a  bar-room  within  thirty 
miles  of  the  Pennsylvania  line." 

The  two  following  advertisements  are  illustra- 
tions of  the  regard  paid  to  the  marriage  relations 
by  slaveholding  judges,  governors,  senators  in 
Congress,  and  mayors  of  cities. 

From  the  "  Montgomery,  (Ala.)  Advertiser." 
Sept.  29,  lb37. 

"  ^20  Reward. — Ranaway  from  the  subscriber, 
a  negro  man  named  Moses.  He  is  of  common 
size,  about  28  years  old.  He  formerly  belonged 
to  Judge  Benson,  of  Montgomery,  and  it  is  said, 
has  a  wife  in  that  county.  John  Gayle." 

The  John  Gayle  who  signs  this  advertisement, 
is  an  Ex-Governor  of  Alabama. 

From  the  "  Charleston  Courier,"  Nov.  28. 

"  Ranaway  from  the  subscriber,  about  twelve 
months  since,  his  negro  man  Paulladorc.  Hia 
complexion  is  dark — about  50  years  old.  I  un- 
derstand Gen.  R.  Y.  Hayne  has  purchased  his 
wife  and  children  from  H.  L.  Pmckney,  Esq. 
and  has  them  now  on  his  plantation,  at  Goose 
Creek,  where,  no  doubt,  the  fellow  is  frequently 
lurking.  Thomas  Davis." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  that  the  General 
R.  Y.  Hayne,  and  H.  L.  Pinckney,  Esq.  named 
in  the  advertisement,  are  Ex-Governor  Hayne, 
formerly  U.  S.  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  and 
Hon.  Henry  L.  Pinckney,  late  member  of  Con. 
gress  from  Charleston  District,  and  now  Intcndant 
(Mayor)  ol  that  city. 

It  is  no  difficult  matter  to  get  at  the  '  public 
opinion'  of  a  community,  when  ladies  '  of  prop- 
erty and  standing'  publish,  under  their  own 
names,    such   advertisements  as   the    following. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  L.  Carter,  of  Groveton,  Prince 
William  county,  Virginia,  thus  advertises  her  ne- 
gro  man  Moses : 

"  Ranaway  from  the  subscriber,  a  negro  man 
named  Moses,  aged  about  40  years,  about  six  feet 
high,  well  made,  and  possessing  a  good  address, 
and  has  lost  a  part  of  one  of  his  ears." 

Mrs.  B.  Newman,  of  the  same  place,  and  in 
the  same  paper,  advertises — 

"  Penny,  the  wife  of  Moses,  aged  about  30 
years,  brown  complexion,  tall  and  likely,  no  par- 
ticular  marks  of  person  recollected." 

Both  of  the  above  advertisements  appear  in  the 
National  Intelligencer,  (Washington  city,)  June 
10,  1837. 

In  the  Mobile  Mercantile  Advertiser,  of  Feb. 
13,  1838,  is  an  advertisement  signed  Sarah 
Walsh,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract: 

"Twenty-five  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  to  any 
one  who  may  apprehend  and  deliver  to  me,  or 
confine  in  any  jail,  so  that  I  can  get  him,  my 
man  Isaac,  who  ranaway  sometime  in  September 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


173 


Jast.  He  is  26  years  of  age,  5  feet  1 0  inches 
high,  has  a  scar  on  his  forehead,  caused  by  a  blow, 
and  one  on  his  back,  made  by  a  shot  from  a  pis- 
tol." 

In  the  "  New  Orleans  Bee,"  Dec.  21, 1838,  Mrs. 
DuRVAN'T,  whose  residence  is  at  the  corner  of 
Chartres  and  Toulouse  streets,  advertises  a  wo- 
man as  follows  : 

"■  Ranaway,  a  negro  woman  named  Rachel — 
has  lost  all  her  toes  except  the  large  one." 

From  the  "  Huntsville  (Ala.)  Democrat,"  June 
16,  1838: 

"  Ten  Doll.\rs  Reward. — Ranaway  from  the 
subscriber,  a  negro  woman  named  Sally,  about 
21  years  of  age,  taking  along  her  two  cliildren — 
one  three  yea.s,  and  the  other  seven  months  old. 
These  negroes  were  purchased  by  me  at  the  sale 
of  George  Mason's  negroes,  on  the  first  Monday 
in  May,  and  left  a  few  days  thereafter.  Any 
person  dehvering  them  to  the  jailor  in  Hunts- 
ville, or  to  me,  at  my  plantation,  five  miles  above 
Triana,  on  the  Tennessee  river,  shall  receive  the 
above  reward.  Charity  Cooper." 

From  the  "  Mississippian,"  May  13,  1838  : 
"  Ten  Dollars  Reward. — Ranaway  from  the 
subscriber,  a  man  named  Aaron,  yellow  com- 
plexion, blue  eyes,  &c.  I  have  no  doubt  he  is 
lurking  about  Jackson  and  its  vicinity,  probably 
harbored  by  some  of  the  negroes  sold  as  tiie  property 
of  my  late  husband,  Harry  Long,  deceased.  Some 
of  them  are  about  Richland,  in  Madison  co.  I 
will  give  the  above  reward  when  brought  to  me, 
about  six  miles  north-west  of  Jackson,  or  put  in 
JAIL,  so  that  I  can  get  him.  Lucy  Long." 

If  tlie  reader,  after  perusing  the  preceding 
facts,  testimony,  and  arguments,  still  insists  that 
the  '  public  opinion'  of  the  slave  states  protects 
the  slave  from  outrages,  and  alleges,  as  proof  of 
it,  that  cruel  masters  are  frowned  upon  and  shun- 
ned by  the  community  generally,  and  regarded 
as  monsters,  we  reply  by  presenting  the  following 
facts  and  testimony. 

"  Col.  Means,  of  Manchester,  Ohio,  says,  that 
when  he  resided  in  South  Carolina,  his  neighbor, 
a  physician,  became  enraged  with  his  slave,  and 
.sentenced  him  to  receive  two  hundred  lashes. 
After  having  received  one  hundred  and  forty,  he 
fainted.  After  inflicting  the  full  number  of 
lashes,  the  cords  with  which  he  was  bound  were 
loosed.  When  he  revived,  he  staggered  to  the 
house,  and  sat  down  in  the  sun.  Being  faint 
and  thirsty,  he  begged  for  some  water  to  drink. 
The  master  went  to  the  well,  and  procured  some 
water — but  instead  of  giving  him  to  drink,  he 
threw  the  whole  bucket-full  in  his  face.  Nature 
could  not  stand  the  shock — he  sunk  to  rise  no 
more.  For  this  crime,  the  physician  was  bound 
over  to  Court,  and  tried,  and  acquitted — and 
THE  NEXT  YEAli  HE  WAS  ELECTED 
TO  THE  LEGISLAiURE!" 

Testimony  of  Hon.  John  Randolph,  of  Vir- 
ginia : 

"  In  one  of  his  Congressional  speeches,  Mr.  R. 
says:  Avarice  alone  can  drive,  as  it  does  drive, 
this  infernal  traffic,  and  the  wretched  victims  of 


it,  like  so  many  post-horses,  whipped  to  death  in 
a  mail  coach.  Ambition  has  its  cover-sluts  in 
the  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious 
war ;  but  where  are  the  trophies  of  avarice  ? 
The  hand-crtff,  the  manacle,  the  blood-stained 
cowhide  !  What  man  is  worse  received  in  so- 
ciety FOR  BEING  A  HARD  MASTER  ?  WhO  DENIES 
TUF  HAND  OF  A  SISTER  OPw  DAUGHTER  TO  SUCH 
MONSTERS?" 

Mr.  George  A.  Avery,  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  who  resided  four  years  in  Virginia,  testi- 
fies as  follows : 

"  I  know  a  local  Methodist  minister,  a  man  of 
talents,  and  popular  as  a  preacher,  who  took  hie 
negro  girl  into  his  barn,  in  order  to  whip  her — 
and  she  was  brought  out  a  corpse  !  His  friends 
seemed  to  think  tiiis  of  so  little  importance  to  his 
ministerial  standing,  that  although  I  lived  near 
him  about  three  years,  I  do  not  recollect  to  have 
heard  them  apologize  for  the  deed,  though  I  re- 
collect having  heard  one  of  his  neighbors  allege 
this  fact  as  a  reason  why  he  did  not  wisk  to  heai 
him  preach." 

Notwithstanding  the  mass  of  testimony  which 
has  been  presented  establishing  the  fact  that  fn 
the  '  public  opinion'  of  the  South  the  slaves 
find  no  protection,  some  may  still  claim  that  the 
'  public  opinion'  exhibited  by  the  preceding  facts 
is  not  that  of  the  highest  class  of  society  at 
the  South,  and  in  proof  of  this  assertion,  refer  to 
the  fact,  that  '  Negro  Brokers,'  Negro  Specu- 
lators, Negro  Auctioneers,  and  Negro  Breeders, 
&c.,  are  by  that  class  universallj'  despised  and 
avoided,  as  are  all  who  treat  their  slaves  with 
cruelty. 

To  this  we  reply,  that,  if  all  claimed  by  the 
objector  were  true,  it  could  avail  him  nothing 
for  'public  opinion'  is  neither  made  nor  unmade 
by  '  the  first  class  of  society.'  That  class  pro- 
duces  in  it,  at  most,  but  slight  modifications ; 
those  who  belong  to  it  have  generally  a  '  public 
opinion,'  within  their  own  circle  which  has  rare- 
ly more,  either  of  morality  or  mercy  than  the 
public  opinion  of  tlie  mass,  and  is,  at  least,  equal- 
ly heartless  and  more  intolerant.  As  to  the  esti- 
mation in  which  'speculators,'  'soul  drivers,' 
&c.  are  held,  we  remark,  that,  they  are  not  de- 
spised because  they  trade  in  slaves  but  because 
they  are  working  men,  all  such  are  despised  by 
slaveholders.  White  drovers  who  go  vi'ith  droves  of 
swine  and  cattle  from  the  free  states  to  the  slave 
states,  and  Yankee  pedlars, who  traverse  the  south, 
and  white  day-laborers  are,  in  the  main,  equally 
despised,  or,  if  negro-traders  excite  more  contempt 
than  drovers,  pedlars,  and  day-laborers,  it  is  be- 
cause, they  are,  as  a  class  more  ignorant  and 
vulgar,  men  from  low  families  and  and  boors  in 
their  manners.  Ridiculous  I  to  suppose,  that  a 
people,  who  have,  by  laio,  made  men  articles  of 
trade  equally  with  swine,  should  despise  men- 
drovere  and  traders,  more  than  hog-dro\ers  and 


174 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


traders.  That  they  arc  not  despised  because  it  is 
their  business  to  trade  in  human  beings  and  bring 
them  to  market,  is  plain  from  the  fact  that  when 
some  '  gentleman  of  property  and  standing'  and 
of  a  '  good  family'  embarks  in  a  negro  speculation, 
and  employs  a  dozen  '  soul  drivers'  to  traverse  the 
upper  country,  and  drive  to  the  south  coffles  of 
Rlaves,  expending  hundreds  of  thousands  in  his 
wholesale  purchases,  he  does  not  lose  caste.  It  js 
known  in  Alabama,  that  Mr.  Erwin,  son-in-law  of 
the  Hon.  Henry  Clay,  and  brother  of  J.  P.  Erwin, 
formerly  postmaster,  and  late  mayor  of  the  city  of 
Nashville,  laid  the  foundation  of  a  princely  fortune 
in  the  slave-trade,  carried  on  from  the  Northern 
Slave  States  to  the  Planting  South  ;  that  the  Hon. 
H.  Hitchcock,  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  E.,  and  since 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Alaba- 
ma,  was  interested  with  him  In  tlie  traffic  ;  and  that 
a  late  member  of  the  Kentucky  Senate  (Col.  Wall) 
not  only  carried  on  the  same  business,  a  few  years 
ago,  but  accompanied  his  droves  in  person  down 
the  Mississippi.  Not  as  the  driver,  for  that  would 
be  vulgar  drudgery,  beneath  a  gentleman,  but  as 
a  nabob  in  state,  ordering  his  understrappers. 

It  is  also  well  known  that  President  Jackson 
was  a  'soul  driver,'  and  that  even  so  late  as  the 
year  before  the  commencement  of  the  last  war,  he 
bought  up  a  coffle  of  slaves  and  drove  them  down 
to  Louisiana  for  sale. 

Thomas  N.  Gadsden,  Esq.  the  principal  slave 
auctioneer  in  Ciiarleston,  S.  C.  is  of  one  of  the 
first  families  in  the  state,  and  moves  in  the  very 
highest  class  of  society  there.  He  is  a  descendant 
of  the  d  istin  guished  General  Gadsden  of  revolution- 
ary memory,  the  most  prominent  southern  mem- 
ber in  the  Continental  Congress  of  1765,  and  after- 
wards elected  lieutenant  governor  and  then  govern. 
or  of  the  state.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Gadsden,  rector  of 
St.  FJiilip's  Church,  Charleston,  and  the  Rev. 
Phillip  Gadsden,  both  prominent  Episcopal  cler- 
gymen in  South  Carolina,  and  Colonel  James 
Gadsden  of  the  United  States  army,  after  whom  a 
county  in  Florida  was  recently  named,  are 
all  brothers  of  this  Thomas  N.  Gadsden,  Esq.  the 
largest  slave  auctioneer  in  the  state,  under  whose 
hammer,  men,  women  and  children  go  ofFby  thou- 
sands ;  its  stroke  probably  sunders  daily,  husbands 
and  wives,  parents  and  children,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, perhaps  to  see  each  other's  faces  no  more. 
Now  who  supply  the  auction  table  of  this  Thomas 
N.  Gadsden,  Esq.  with  its  loads  of  human  mer- 
chandize ?  These  same  detested  '  soul  drivers' 
forsooth !  They  prowl  through  the  country,  buy, 
catch,  and  fetter  them,  and  drive  their  chained 
coffles  up  to  his  stand,  where  Thomas  N.  Gads- 
den, Esq.  knocks  them  oflF  to  the  highest  bidder,  to 
Ex-Governor  Butler  perhaps,  or  to  Ex-Governor 
Haync,  or  to  Hon.  Robert  Barnwell  Rhctt,  or  to 
his   own  reverend  brother.  Dr.  Gadsden.     Now 


this  high  born,  wholesale  soul-seller  doubtless  de- 
spises the  retail  '  soul-drivers'  who  give  him  their 
custom,  and  so  does  the  wholesale  grocer,  the  driz- 
zling tapster  who  sneaks  up  to  liis  counter  for  a 
keg  of  whiskey  to  dole  out  under  a  shanty  in  two 
cent  glasses ;  and  both  for  the  sanac  reason. 

The  plea  that  the  'public  opinion'  among  the 
highest  classes  of  society  at  the  south  is  mild  and 
considerate  towards  the  slaves,  that  thm  do  not 
overwork,  underfeed,  neglect  when  old  and  sick, 
scantily  clothe,  badly  lodge,  and  half  shelter  their 
slaves ;  that  they  do  not  barbarously  flog,  load  witli 
irons,  imprison  in  the  stocks,  brand  and  maun 
them  ;  hunt  them  when  runaways  with  dogs  and 
guns,  and  sunder  by  force  and  forever  the  nearest 
kindred — is  shown,  by  almost  every  page  of  this 
work,  to  be  an  assumption,  not  only  utterly  ground- 
less, but  directly  opposed  to  masses  of  irrefragable 
evidence.  If  the  reader  will  be  at  the  pains  to" 
review  the  testimony  recorded  on  the  foregoing 
pages  he  will  find  that  a  very  large  proportion 
of  the  atrocities  detailed  were  committed,  not  by 
the  most  ignorant  and  lowest  classes  of  society, 
but  by  persons  '  of  property  and  standing,'  by 
masters  and  mistresses  belonging  to  the  '  upper 
classes,'  by  persons  in  the  learned  professions,  by 
civil,  judicial,  and  military  officers,  by  the  literati, 
by  the  fashionable  elite  and  persons  of  more  than 
ordinary  '  respectability'  and  external  morality — 
large  numbers  of  whom  are  professors  of  religion. 

It  will  be  recollected  that  the  testimony  of  Sa- 
rah M.  Grimk^,  and  Angelina  G.Weld,  was  con. 
fined  exclusively  to  the  details  of  slavery  as  ex- 
hibited in  the  highest  classes  of  society,  mainly  in 
Charleston,  S.  C.  See  their  testimony  pp.  22 — ^24 
and  52 — 57.  The  former  has  furnished  us  with 
the  following  testimony  in  addition  to  that  already 
given. 

"Nathaniel  Hcywardof  Combahee,  S.  C,  one  of 
the  wealthiest  planters  in  the  state,  stated,  in  con- 
versation with  some  other  planters  who  were  com- 
plaining of  the  idle  and  lazy  habits  of  tlicir  slaves, 
and  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  whether  their 
sickness  was  real  or  pretended,  and  the  loss  they 
suffered  from  their  frequent  absence  on  this  ac 
count  from  their  work,  said,  '  I  never  lose  a 
day's  work  :  it  is  an  established  rule  on  my  plan, 
tations  that  the  tasks  of  all  the  sick  negroes  shall 
be  done  by  those  who  are  well  in  addition  to  their 
own.  By  tliis  means  a  vigilant  supervision  is  kept 
up  by  the  slaves  over  each  other,  and  they  take 
care  that  nothing  but  real  sickness  keeps  any  one 
out  of  the  field.'  I  .«pent  several  winters  in  tlie 
neigliborhood  of  Nathaniel  Hey  ward's  plantations, 
and  well  remember  his  character  as  a  severe  task 
master.  /  was  present  when  the  above  statement 
was  made.'' 

The  cool  barbarity  of  such  a  regulation  is  hard. 
ly  surpassed  by  the  worst  edicts  of  the  Roman 
Caligula — especially  when  we  consider  that  the 
plantations  of  this  man  were  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Combahec  river,  one  of  the  most  unhealth 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


175 


districts  in  the  low  country  of  South  Carohna ; 
further,  that  large  numbers  of  his  slaves  worked  in 
the  rice  marshes,  or  '  swamps'  as  they  are  called 
in  that  state — and  tliat  during  six  months  of  the 
year,  so  fatal  to  health  is  the  malaria  of  the 
swamps  in  tliat  region  that  the  planters  and  their 
families  invariably  abandon  their  plantations,  re- 
garding it  as  downright  presumption  to  spend  a 
single  day  upon  them  '  between  the  frosts'  of 
the  early  spring  and  the  last  of  November. 

The  reader  may  infer  the  high  standing  of  Mr. 
Heyward  in  South  Carolina,  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  selected  with  four  other  freeholders  to 
constitute  a  Court  for  the  trial  of  the  conspirators 
in  the  insurrection  plot  at  Charleston,  in  1822. 
Another  of  the  individuals  chosen  to  constitute 
that  court  was  Colonel  Henry  Deas,  now  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Charleston  Col- 
lege, and  a  few  years  since  a  member  of  the  Se- 
nate of  South  Carolina.  From  a  late  corresp  n- 
dcnce  in  the  "  Greenvile  (S.  C.)  Mountaineer," 
between  Rev.  William  M.  Wightman,  a  professor 
in  Randolph,  Macon,  College,  and  a  number  of  the 
citizens  of  Lodi,  South  Carolina,  it  appears  that 
the  cruelty  of  this  Colonel  Deas  to  his  slaves,  is 
proverbial  in  South  Carolina,  so  much  that  Pro- 
fessor Wightman,  in  the  sermon  which  occasion- 
ed the  correspondence,  spoke  of  the  Colonel's  in- 
humanity to  his  slaves  as  a  matter  of  perfect  no- 
toriety. 

Another  South  Carolina  slaveholder,  Hon. 
Whitmarsh  B.  Seabrook,  recently,  we  believe, 
Lieut.  Governor  of  the  state,  gives  the  following 
testimony  to  his  own  inhumanity,  and  his  certifi- 
cate of  the  '  public  opinion  '  among  South  Caro- 
lina slaveholders  '  of  high  degree.' 

In  an  essay  on  the  management  of  slaves,  read 
before  the  Agricultural  Society  of  St.  Johns,  S.  C. 
and  published  by  the  Society,  Charleston,  1834, 
Mr.  S.  remarks  : 

"  I  consider  imprisonment  in  the  stocks  at  night, 
with  or  without  hard  labor  in  the  day,  as  a  pow- 
erful auxiliary  in  the  cause  of  good  government. 
To  the  correctness  of  this  opinion  mamj  can  bear 
testimony.  Experience  has  convinced  me  that 
there  is  no  punishment  to  which  the  slave  looks 
with  more  horror.'^  •  ,,^ 

The  advertisements  of  the  Professors  in  the 
Medical  Colleges  of  South  Carolina,  published 
with  comments — on  pp.  169,  170,  arc  additional  il- 
lustrations of  the  '  public  opinion '  of  the  literati. 

That  the  'public  opinion  '  of  the  highest  class 
of  society  in  South  Carolina,  regards  slaves  as 
mere  cattle,  is  shown  by  the  following  advertise- 
ment, which  we  copy  from  the  "Charleston  (S.C.) 
Mercury"  of  May  16  : 

"  Negroes  for  S.\le. — A  Girl  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  (raised  in  Virginia,)  and  her  two  fe- 
male children,  one  four  and  the  other  two  years 
old — is  remarkably    strong  and   healthy — never 


having  had  a  day's  sickness,  with  the  exception 
of  the  small  pox,  in  her  life.  The  children  are 
fine  and  healthy.  She  is  very  prolific  in  her. 
GENERATING  QUALITIES,  and  uffords  a  rare  opportu. 
nity  to  any  person  who  ivishes  to  raise  a  family 
of  strong  and  healthy  servants  for  their  oicn  use. 
"  Any  person  wishing  to  purchase,  will  please 
leave  their  address  at  the  Mercury  office." 

The  Charleston  Mercury,  in  which  this  adver- 
tisement appears,  is  the  Uading  political  paper  in 
South  Carolina,  and  is  well  known  to  be  the  po- 
litical organ  of  Messrs.  Calhoun,  Rhett,  Pickens, 
and  others  of  the  most  prominent  politicians  in 
the  state.  Its  editor,  John  Stewart,  Esq.,  is  a  law- 
yer of  Charleston,  and  of  a  highly  respectable  fa- 
mily. He  is  a  brother-in-law  of  Hon.  Robert 
Barnwell  Rhett,  the  late  Attorney-General,  now 
a  Member  of  Congress,  and  Hon.  James  Rhett,  a 
leading  member  of  the  Senate  of  South  Carolina  ; 
his  wife  is  a  niece  of  the  late  Governor  Smith,  of 
North  Carolina,  and  of  the  late  Hon.  Peter 
Smith,  Intendant  (Mayor)  of  the  city  of  Charles- 
ton ;  and  a  cousin  of  the  late  Hon.  Thomas  S. 
Grimke. 

The  circulation  of  the  '  Mercury'  among  the 
wealthy,  the  literary,  and  ths  fashionable,  is  pro- 
bably much  larger  than  that  of  any  other  paper 
in  the  state. 

These  facts  in  connection  with  the  preceding 
advertisement,  are  a  sufficient  exposition  of  the 
'public  opinion 'towards  slaves,  prevalent  in  these 
classes  of  society. 

The  following  scrap  of  '  public  opinion'  in  Flo- 
rida, is  instructive.  We  take  it  from  the  Frorida 
Herald,  June  23,  1838  : 

Ranaway  from  my  plantation,  on  Monday 
night,  the  13th  instant,  a  negro  fellow  named 
Ben  ;  eighteen  years  of  age,  polite  when  spoken 
to,  and  speaks  very  good  English  for  a  negro. 
As  I  have  traced  him  out  in  several  places  in 
town,  I  am  certain  he  is  harbored.  This  notice 
is  given  that  I  am  determined,  that  whenever  he 
is  taken,  to  punish  him  till  he  informs  me  who  has 
given  him  food  and  protection,  and  /  shall  apply 
the  law  of  Judge  Lynch  to  my  own  satisfaction,  on 
those  concerned  in  his  concealment. 

A.  Wapson. 

June  16,  1838." 

Now,  who  is  this  A.  Watson,  who  proclaims 
through  a  newspaper,  his  determination  to  put  to 
the  torture  this  youth  of  eighteen,  and  to  Lynch 
to  his  '  satisfaction  '  whoever  has  given  a  cup  o.f 
cold  water  to  the  panting  fugitive.  Is  he  some 
low  miscreant  beneath  public  contempt  ?  Nay, 
verily,  he  is  a  '  gentleman  of  property  and  stand- 
ing,' one  of  the  wealthiest  planters  and  largest 
slaveholders  in  Florida.  He  resides  in  the  vicini. 
ty  of  St.  Augustine,  and  married  the  daughter  »f 
the  late  Thomas  C.  Morton,  Esq.  one  of  the  first 
merchants  in  New  York. 

We  may  mention  in  this  connection  the  well 


176 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


known  fact,  that  many  wealthy  planters  make  it 
a  rule  nezer  to  employ  a  physician  among  their 
slaves.  Hon.  William  Smith,  Senator  in  Con- 
gress, from  South  Carolina,  from  1816  to  1823, 
and  afterwards  from  1826  to  1831,  is  one  of  this 
number.  Ho  owns  a  number  o!"  large  plantations 
in  the  south  western  states.  One  of  these,  bor- 
ders upon  the  village  of  Huntsville,  Alabama. 
The  people  of  that  village  can  testify  that  it  is  a 
part  of  Judge  Smith's  system  never  to  employ  a 
physician  even  in  the  most  extreme  cases.  If  the 
inedical  skill  of  the  overseer,  or  of  the  slaves 
themselves,  can  contend  successfully  with  the 
disease  ,  they  live,  if  not,  they  die.  At  all  events, 
a  physician  iB  not  to  be  called.  Judge  Smith  was 
appointed  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  three  years  since. 

The  reader  will  recall  a  similar  fact  in  the  testi- 
mony of  Rev.  W.  T.  Allan,  son  of  Rev.  Dr.  Al- 
lan, of  Huntsville,  (see  p.  47,)  who  says  that  Co- 
lonel Robert  H.  Watkins,  a  wealthy  planter,  in 
Alabama,  and  a  presidential  elector  in  1836, 
who  works  on  his  plantations  three  hundred 
slaves,  '  After  employing  a  physician  for  some 
time  among  his  negroes,  he  ceased  to  do  so,  al. 
lodging  as  the  reason,  that  it  was  cheaper  to  lose 
a  few  negroes  every  year  than  to  pay  a  physician.'' 

It  is  a  fact  perfectly  notorious,  that  the  late  Ge- 
n(;ral  Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Carolina,  who  was 
tlie  largest  slaveholder  in  the  United  States,  and 
probably  the  wealthiest  man  south  of  the  Poto- 
mac, v?as  excessively  cruel  in  the  treatment  of  his 
slaves.  The  anecdote  of  him  related  by  a  cler- 
gyman, on  page  29,  is  perfectly  characteristic. 

For  instances  of  barbarous  inhumanity  of  va- 
rious kinds,  and  manifested  by  persons  belonging 

TO  THE  MOST  RESPECTABLE  CIRCLES  OF  SOCIETY,  the 

reader  can  consult  the  following  references : — 
Testimony  of  Rev.  John  Graham,  p.  25,  near  the 
bottom ;  of  Mr.  Poe,  p.  26,  middle ;  of  Rev.  J.  O. 
Choules,  p.  39,  middle  ;  of  Rev.  Dr.  Channing, 
p.  44,  top  ;  of  Mr.  George  A.  Avery,  p.  44,  bot- 
tom ;  of  Rev.  W.  T.  Allan,  p.  47 ;  of  Mr.  John 
M.  Nelson,  p.  51,  bottom  ;  of  Dr.  J.  C.  Finley,  p. 
(51,  top;  of  Mr.  Dustin,  p.  66,  bottom;  of  Mr. 
John  Clarke,  p.  87 ;  of  Mr.  Nathan  Cole,  p.  89, 
middle  ;  Rev.  William  Dickey,  p.  93  ;  Rev.  Fran- 
cis Hawley,  p,  97 ;  of  Mr.  Powell,  p.  100  middle  ; 
of  Rev.  P.  Smith  p.  102. 

The  preceding  are  but  a  few  of  a  large  num. 
bcr  of  similar  cases  contained  in  the  foregoing  tes- 
liinonies.  The  slaveholder  mentioned  by  Mr. 
Ladd,  p.  80,  who  knocked  down  a  slave  and  af- 
terwards piled  brush  upon  his  body,  and  consum- 
ed it,  held  the  hand  of  a  female  .slave  in  the  fire 
till  it  was  burned  so  as  to  be  useless  for  life,  and 
confessed  to  Mr.  Ladd,  that  he  had  killed  four 
tlaves,  had  bi^cn  a  meniber  of  the  Senate  of  Geor- 
gia and    a  clergyman.      The    slaveholder   who 


v/hipped  a  female  slave  to  death  in  St.  Louis, 
in  1837,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Cole,  p.  89,  was  a 
Major  in  the  United  States  Anny.  One  of  the 
physicians  who  was  an  abettor  of  the  tragedy  on 
the  Brassos,  in  which  a  slave  was  tortured  to 
death,  and  another  so  that  he  barely  lived,  (see 
Rev.  Mr.  Smith's  testimony,  p.  102.)  was  Dr.  An- 
son Jones,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  who  was 
soon  after  appointed  minister  plenipotentiary  from 
Texas  to  this  government,  and  now  resides  at 
Washington  city.  The  slave  mistress  at  Lexing- 
ton, Ky.,  who,  as  her  husband  testifies,  has  killed 
six  of  hi.s  slaves,  (see  testimony  of  Mr.  Clarke, 
p.  87,)  is  the  wife  of  Hon.  Fielding  S.  Turner, 
late  judge  of  the  criminal  court  of  New  Orleans, 
and  one  of  the  wealthiest  slaveholders  in  Ken- 
tucky. Lilburn  Lewis,  who  deliberately  chopped 
in  pieces  his  slave  George,  with  a  broad-axe,  (see 
testimony  of  Rev.  Mr.  Dickey,  p.  93)  was  a  wealthy 
slaveholder,  and  a  nephew  of  President  JefFerson. 
Rev.  Francis  TIawley,  who  was  a  genera]  agent 
of  the  Baptist  State  Convention  of  North  Caroli- 
na, confesses  (see  p.  47,)  that  while  residing  in 
that  state  he  once  went  out  with  his  hounds  and 
rifle,  to  hunt  fugitive  slaves.  But  instead  of 
making  further  reference  to  testimony  already  bi^- 
fore  the  reader,  we  will  furnish  additional  instan- 
ces  of  the  barbarous  cruelty  which  is  tolerated 
and  sanctioned  by  the  '  upper  classes '  of  society 
at  the  south ;  we  begin  with  clergymen,  and 
other  ofScers  and  members  of  churches. 

That  the  reader  may  judge  of  the  degree  of 
'  protection'  which  slaves  receive  from  '  public 
opinion,'  and  among  the  members  and  ministers 
of  professed  christian  churches,  we  insert  the 
folio \ving  illustrations. 

Extract  from  an  editorial  article  in  the  "  Lowell 
(Mass.)  Observer"  a  religious  paper  edited  at  tlic 
time  (1833  by  the  Rev.  Daniel  S.  Southbiayo, 
who  recen   y  died  in  Texas. 

"  We  !'  vc  been  among  the  slaves  at  the  south. 
We  took  ,)ains  to  make  discoveries  in  respect  to 
the  evili-'  )f  slavery.  Wc  formed  our  sentiments 
on  tlie  .  .bject  of  the  cruelties  exercised  towards 
the  sla  ■<;  from  having  witnessed  them.  We  now 
affirm  that  we  never  saw  a  man,  who  had  never 
been  at  the  south,  who  thought  as  much  of  the 
cruelties  practiced  on  the  slaves,  as  we  know  to 
be  a  fact. 

"  A  slave  whom  I  loved  for  his  kindness  and  the 
amiablencss  of  his  disposition,  and  who  belonged 
to  the  family  where  I  resided,  happened  to  stay 
out  fifteen  minutes  longer  than  he  had  permission 
to  stay.  It  was  a  mistake — it  was  unintentional. 
But  what  was  the  penalty  ?  He  was  sent  to  the 
house  of  correction  with  the  order  that  he  should 
have  thirty  lashes  vpon  his  naked  body  loitk  a 
knotted  rope .'  .'  !  He  was  brought  home  and 
laid  down  in  the  stoop,  in  the  back  of  the  house. 
in  the  sun,  npon  the  floor.  And  there  he  lay,  witli 
more  the  appearance  of  a  rotten  carcass  than  a 
living  man,  for  four  days  before  he  cnuld  do  more 
i  than  move.     And  wlio  was  this  inhuman  bcinjf 


Objectio7is  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


177 


calling  God'b  property  his  own,  and  using  it  as  he 
would  not  have  dared  to  use  a  beast  ?  You  may 
say  he  was  a  tigcr~one  of  the  more  wicked  sort, 
and  that  we  must  not  judge  others  by  him.  He 
was  a  professor  of  that  religion  which  will  pour 
upon  the  loilling  slaifeholder  the  retribution  due  to 
his  sin. 

"  We  wish  to  mention  another  fact,  which  our 
own  eyes  saw  and  our  own  ears  heard.  We 
were  called  to  evening  prayers.  The  family  as- 
sembled around  the  altar  of  their  accustomed 
devotions.  There  was  one  female  slave  present, 
who  belonged  to  another  master,  but  who  had 
been  hired  for  the  day  and  tarried  to  attend  fami- 
ly worship.  The  precious  Bible  was  opened,  and 
nearly  half  a  chapter  had  been  read,  when  the 
eye  of  the  master,  who  was  reading,  observed 
that  the  new  female  servant,  instead  of  being 
seated  like  his  own  slaves,  fiat  upon  the  floor,  was 
standing  in  a  stooping  posture  upon  her  feet.  He 
loid  her  to  sit  down  ou  the  floor.  She  said  it  was 
not  her  custom  at  home.  He  ordered  her  again 
to  do  it.  She  replied  that  her  master  did  not  re- 
ijuire  it.  Irritated  by  this  answer,  he  repeatedly 
struck  her  upon  the  head  with  the  very  Bible  he 
held  in  his  hand.  And  not  content  with  tiiis,  he 
seized  his  cane  and  caned  her  down  stairs  most 
unmercifully.  He  then  returned  to  resume  his 
profane  work,  but  we  need  not  say  that  all  the 
family  were  not  there.  Do  you  ask  again,  who 
was  this  wicked  man  ?  He  was  a  professor  of 
religion  !  .'" 

Rev.  Hu-NTiNGTON  LvMAN,  late  pastor  of  the 
Free  Church  in  Buffalo,  New  York,  says  : — 

''  Walking  one  day  in  New  Orleans  with  a 
professional  gentleman,  who  was  educated  in 
Connecticut,  we  were  met  by  a  black  man  ;  the 
gentleman  was  greatly  incensed  with  the  black 
man  for  passing  so  near  him,  and  turning  upon 
him  he  pushed  him  with  violence  off  the  walk 
into  the  street.  This  man  was  a  nrofessor  of  re- 
ligion." 

[And  we  add,  a  member,  and  if  we  mistake  not 
an  officer  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  which  was 
established  there  by  Rev.  Joel  Parker,  and  which 
was  then  under  his  teachings. — Ed.] 

Mr.  EzEKiEL  BiRDSEVE,  a  gentleman  of  known 
probity,  in  Cornwall,  Litchfield  county,  Conn, 
gives  the  testimony  which  follows  : — 

"  A  Baptist  clergyman  in  Laurens  District, 
S,  C.  WHIPPED  HIS  SLAVE  TO  DEATH,  whom  he  sus. 
pected  of  having  stolen  about  sixty  dollars.  The 
slave  was  in  the  prime  of  life  and  was  purchased 
a  few  weeks  before  for  $800  of  a  slave  trader  from 
Virginia  or  Maryland.  The  coroner,  Wm.  Irby, 
at  whose  house  I  was  then  boarding,  told  ?Me,  thaton 
reviewing  the  dead  body,  he  found  it  beat  to  a  jelly 
from  head  to  foot.  The  master's  wife  discovered 
the  money  a  day  or  two  after  the  death  of  the 
slave.  She  had  herself  removed  it  from  where 
it  was  placed,  not  knowing  what  it  was,  as  it  was 
tied  up  in  a  thick  envelope.  I  happrned  to  be 
present  when  the  trial  of  this  man  took  place,  at 
Laurens  Court  House.  His  daughter  testified 
ihat  her  father  untied  the  slave,  when  he  appear- 
fed  to  be  faihng,  and  gave  him  cold  water  to  drink, 
«f  which  he  took  freely.  His  counsel  pleaded  that 
12 


his  death  might  have  been  cauled  by  drinking 
cold  water  in  a  state  of  excitement.  The  Judge 
charged  the  jury,  that  it  would  be  their  duty  to 
find  the  defendant  guilty,  if  they  beheved  the 
death  was  caused  by  the  whipping;  but  if  they 
were  of  opinion  that  drinking  cold  water  caused 
the  death,  they  would  find  him  not  guilty  I  The 
jury  found  him — not  guilty  !" 

Dr.  Jehemiah  S.  Waugh,  a  physician  in  Somer- 
ville,  Butler  county,  Ohio,  testifies  as  follows  : — 

"  In  the  year  1825,  I  boarded  with  the  Rev. 
John  Mushat,  a  Seceder  minister,  and  principal 
of  an  academy  in  Iredel  county,  N.  C.  He  had 
slaves,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  restricting  them 
on  the  Sabbath.  One  of  his  slaves,  however,  ven- 
tured to  disobey  his  injunctions.  The  offence  was, 
he  went  away  on  Sabbath  evening,  and  did  not 
TCtarn  till  Monday  morning.  About  the  time  we 
were  called  to  breakfast,  the  Rev.  gentleman  was 
engaged  in  chastising  him  for  breaking  the  Sab- 
hath.  He  detennijied  not  to  submit — attempted 
to  escape  by  flight.  'Yhr,  master  immediately  took 
down  his  gun  and  pursued  irim — levelled  his  in- 
strument of  death,  and  told  him.  if  lie  did  not  stop 
instantly  he  icould  blow  him  through.  The  poor 
slave  returned  to  the  house  and  submitted  himself 
to  the  lash  ;  and  the  good  master,  while  yet  pale 
WITH  RAGE,  sat  doicn  to  the  table,  and  with  a  trem- 
bllng  voice  asked  God's  blessing  !" 

The  following  letter  was  sent  by  Capt.  Jacob 
DuxiiAM,  of  New  York  city,  to  a  slaveholder  in 
Georgetown,  D.  C.  more  than  twenty  years  since': 
"  Georgetown,  June  13,  1815. 

"  Dear  sir — Passing  your  house  yesterday,  I 
beheld  a  scene  of  cruelty  seldom  witnessed  ;  that 
was  the  brutal  chastisement  of  your  negro  girl> 
lashed  to  a  ladder  and  beaten  in  an  inhuman  man- 
ner, too  bad  to  describe.  My  blood  chills  while  1 
contemplate  the  subject.  This  has  led  me  to  in- 
vestigate your  character  from  your  neighbors; 
who  inform  me  that  you  have  caused  the  death  of 
one  negro  man,  whom  you  struck  with  a  sledge 
for  some  trivial  fault — that  you  have  beaten  ano- 
ther black  girl  with  such  severity  that  the  splint- 
ers remained  in  her  back  for  some  weeks  after 
you  sold  her — and  many  other  acts  of  barbarity, 
too  lengthy  to  enumerate.  And  to  ray  great  sur- 
prise, I  find  you  are  a  professor  of  the  Christian 
religion .' 

"  You  will  naturally  inquire,  why  I  meddle  with 
your  family  affairs.  My  answer  is,  the  cause  of 
humanity  and  a  sense  of  my  duty  requires  it. — 
With  these  hasty  remarks  I  leave  you  to  reflect 
on  the  subject ;  but  wish  you  to  remember,  that 
there  is  an  all-seeing  eye  who  knows  all  our  faults 
and  will  reward  us  according  to  our  deeds. 
I  remain,  sir,  yours.  Sec. 

Jacob  Dunham, 
Master  of  the  brig  Cyrus,  of  N.  Y." 

Rev.  Sylvester  Cowles,  pastor  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  Frcdonia,  N.  Y.  says : — 

"  A  young  man,  a  member  of  the  church  in 
Conewango,  went  to  Alabama  last  year,  to  reside 
as  a  clerk  in  an  uncle's  store.  When  he  had  been 
there  about  nine  months,  he  wrote  his  father  that 
he  must  return  home.  To  sec  members  of  thy 
same  ciiurch  sit  at  the  communion  tabic  of  ouf 


178 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


Lord  one  day,  and  the  next  to  see  one  seize  any 
weapon  and  knock  the  other  down,  as  /;•»  had  seen, 
lie  cotdd  not  hve  there.  His  good  father  forthwith 
gave  him  permission  to  return  home." 

The  following  is  a  specimen  of  the  shameless 
Jiardihood  with  which  a  professed  minister  of  tlie 
Gospel,  and  editor  of  a  religious  paper,  assumes 
the  right  to  hold  God's  image  as  a  chattel.  It  is 
from  the  Southern  Christian  Herald  ; — 

"  It  is  stated  in  the  Georgetown  Union,  that  a 
negro,  supposed  to  have  died  of  cholera,  when  that 
disease  [trcvailcd  in  Charleston,  was  carried  to  tlie 
public  burying  ground  to  be  interred  ;  but  before 
interment  signs  of  life  appeared,  and,  by  the  use 
of  proper  means,  he  was  restored  to  health.  And 
now  the  man  who  first  perceived  the  signs  of  life 
in  the  slave,  and  that  led  to  his  preservation, 
claims  the  property  as  his  own,  and  is  about  bring- 
ing suit  for  its  recovery.  As  well  might  a  man 
who  rescued  his  neiglibor's  slave,  or  his  horse, 
from  drowning,  or  who  extinguished  the  flames 
that  would  otherwise  soon  have  burnt  down  his 
neighbor's  house,  claim  the  property  as  his  own." 

Rev.  George  Bourne,  of  New- York  citj',  late 
Editor  of  the  ''  Protestant  Vindicator,"  who  was 
a  preacher  seven  years  in  Virginia,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing testimony.* 

"  Benjamin  Lewis,  who  was  an  elder  in  the  Pres- 
byterian church,  engaged  a  carpenter  to  repair 
and  enlarge  his  house.  After  some  time  had 
elapsed,  Kyle,  the  builder,  was  awakened  very 
early  in  the  morning  by  a  most  piteous  moaning 
and  shrieking.  He  arose,  and  following  the 
sound,  discovered  a  colored  woman  nearl}'  naked, 
tied  to  a  fence,  while  Lewis  was  lacerating  her. 
Kyle  instantly  commanded  the  slave  driver  to  de- 
sist. Lewis  maintained  his  jurisdiction  over  his 
slaves,  and  threatened  Kyle  that  he  would  punish 
him  for  his  interference."  Finally  Kyle  obtained 
the  release  of  the  victim. 

"  A  second  and  a  tl:ird  scene  of  the  same  kind 
occurred,  and  on  the  third  occasion  the  alterca- 

*  A  few  years  since  Mr.  Bourne  published  a  work  en- 
titled, "  Picture  of  slavery  in  the  United  States."  In  which 
he  describes  a  variety  of  horrid  atrocities  perpetrated  upon 
slaves ;  such  <is  brutal  scourginj;  and  lacerations  with  the 
application  of  pepper,  mustard,  salt,  vinegar,  &c.,  to  the 
bleeding  gashes;  also  maimings,  cat-haulings,  burnings. 
Mid  other  tortures  similar  to  hundreds  described  on  the  pre- 
ceding pages.  These  descriptions  of  Mr.  Bounie  were,  at  that 
lime,  thought  by  multitudes  incredible,  and  probably,  even 
by  some  abolitionists,  who  had  never  given  much  reflection 
to  the  subject.  We  are  happy  to  furnish  the  reader  with  the 
following  testimony  of  a  Virginia  slaveholder  to  the  accu- 
racy of  Mr.  Bourne's  delineations.  Especially  as  this  slave- 
holder is  a  native  of  one  of  the  counties  (Culpepper)  near  to 
which  the  atrocities  described  by  Mr.  B.  were  committed. 

Testimony  of  Mr.  William  Hans  borough,  of  Culpepper, 
County,  Virginia,  the  "  owner"  of  sixty  slaves,  to  Mr. 
Bourne's  "  Picture  of  Slavery"  as  a  true  delineation. 

Lindley  Coates,  of  Lancaster  Co.,  Pa.,  a  well  known 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  a  member  of  the 
late  Pennsylv.ania  Convention  for  revisini;  the  Constitution 
of  the  State,  in  a  letter  now  before  us,  describing  a  recent 
interview  between  him  and  Mr.  Hansborougli,  of  several 
■days  continuance,  says, — "  [  handed  him  Bourne's  Pic- 
ture of  slavery  to  read  :  after  reading  it,  he  .said,  that 
all  of  the  snlfcrings  of  slaves  therein  related,  were  tnic 
delineations,  and  that  he  had  seen  all  those  modes  of  tor- 
turt  himself." 


tion  almost  produced  a  battle  between  the  elder 
and  the  carpenter. 

"  Kyle  immediately  arranged  his  affairs,  packed 
up  his  tools  and  prepared  fo  depart.  '  Where  are 
you  going?'  demanded  Lewis.  'I  am  going 
home  ;'  said  Kyle.  '  Then  I  will  pay  you  nothing 
for  what  you  have  done,'  retorted  the  slave  driver, 
'  unless  you  complete  your  contract.'  The  car. 
pcnter  went  away  with  this  edifying  declaration, 
'  I  w  ill  not  stay  here  a  day  longer  ;  for  I  expect 
the  fire  of  God  will  come  down  and  burn  you 
up  altogether,  and  I  do  not  choose  to  go  to  hell 
with  you.'  Through  hush-money  and  promises 
not  to  whip  the  women  any  more,  I  believe  Kyle 
returned  and  completed  his  engagement. 

"James  Kyle  of  Harrisonburg,  Virginia,  fre- 
quently nan-ated  that  circumstance,  and  his  son, 
the  carpenter,  confirmed  it  with  all  the  minute 
particulars  combined  with  his  temporary  resi- 
dence on  the  .Slienandoah  river. 

'' Jolin  M'Cue  of  Augusta  county,  Virginia,  a 
Presbyterian  preacher,  frequently  on  the  Lord's 
day  morning,  tied  up  his  slaves  and  whipped  them  ; 
and  left  them  bound,  while  he  went  to  tlie  meet- 
ing  house  and  preached — and  after  his  return 
home  repeated  his  scourging.  That  fact,  with 
others  more  heinous,  was  known  to  all  persons  in 
his  congregation  and  around  the  vicinity ;  and  so 
far  from  being  censured  for  it,  he  and  his  brethren 
justified  it  as  essential  to  preserve  their  'domes- 
tic institutions.' 

-'  Mrs.  Pence,  of  Rockmgham  county,  Virginia, 
used  to  boast, — '  I  am  the  best  hand  to  whip  a 
wench  in  the  whole  county.'  She  used  to  pinion 
the  girls  to  a  post  in  the  yard  on  the  Lord's  day 
morning,  scourge  them,  put  on  the  '■negro  plas. 
ter,''  salt,  pepper,  and  vinegar,  leave  them  tied, 
and  walk  away  to  church  as  demure  as  a  nun, 
and  after  service  repeat  her  flaying,  if  she  felt  the 
whim.  I  once  expostulated  with  her  upon  her 
cruelty.  '  Mrs.  Pence,  how  can  you  whip  your 
girls  so  publicly  and  disturb  your  neighbors  so  on 
the  Lord's  day  morning.'  Her  answer  was  memo- 
rable. '  If  I  were  to  whip  them  on  any  other  day 
1  should  lose  a  day's  work  ;  but  b}'  whipping  them 
on  Sunday,  their  backs  get  well  enough  by  Mon- 
day morning.'  That  woman,  if  alive,  is  doubtless 
a  member  of  the  church  now,  as  then 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Staughton,  formerly  of  Philadelphia, 
often  stated,  that  when  he  lived  at  Georgetown, 
S.  C.  he  could  tell  the  doings  of  one  of  the  slave- 
holders of  the  Baptist  church  there  by  his  prayers 
at  the  prayer  meeting.  '  If,'  said  he,  '  that  man 
was  upon  good  terms  with  his  slaves,  his  words 
were  cold  and  heartless  as  frost ;  if  he  had  been 
whipping  a  man,  he  would  pray  with  life  ;  but  if 
he  had  left  a  woman  whom  he  had  been  flogging, 
tied  to  a  post  in  his  cellar,  with  a  determination  to 
go  back  and  torture  her  again,  O  !  how  he  would 
pray  !'  The  Rev.  Cyrus  P.  Grosvenor  of  Massa 
chusctts  can  confirni  the  above  statement  by  Dr. 
Staughton. 

"  William  Wilson,  a  Presbyterian  preacher  of 
Augusta  county,  Virginia,  had  a  )'oimg  colored 
girl  who  was  constitutionally  unheallhy.  As  no 
means  to  amend  her  were  availing,  he  sold  her  to 
a  member  of  his  congregation,  and  in  tlic  usual 
style  of  human  flesh  dealers,  warranted  her 
'  soimd,'  «&e.  The  fraud  was  instantly  discover, 
ed ;  but  he  would  not  refund  the  amount.    A  Buil 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


179 


was  commenced,  and  was  long  continued,  and  fi- 
nally  the  plaintiff  recovered  the  money  out  of 
which  he  had  been  swindled  by  slave-trading  with 
his  own  preacher,  No  Presbytery  censured  him, 
although  Judge  Brown,  the  chancellor,  severely 
condemned  the   imposition. 

"  In  the  year  1811,  Jehab  Graham,  a  preacher, 
lived  with  Alexander  Nelson  a  Presbyterian  elder, 
near  Stanton,  Virginia,  and  he  informed  nie  that 
a  man  had  appeared  before  Nelson,  who  was  a 
magistrate,  and  swore  falsely  against  his  slave, — 
that  the  elder  ordered  him  thirty-nine  lashes.  All 
(liat  wickedness  was  done  as  an  excuse  for  his  dis- 
sipated owner  to  obtain  money.  A  negro  trader 
had  offered  him  a  considerable  sum  for  the  '  boy,' 
and  under  the  pretence  of  saving  him  from  the 
punishment  of  the  law,  he  was  trafficked  away 
from  his  woman  and  children  to  another  state. 
The  magistrate  was  aware  of  the  perjury,  and  the 
whole  abomination,  but  all  the  truth  uttered  by 
every  colored  person  in  the  southern  states  would 
not  be  of  any  avail  against  tlie  notorious  false 
swearing  of  the  greatest  white  villain  who  ever 
cursed  the  world.  '  How,'  said  Jehab  Graham, 
'  can  I  preach  to-morrow  ?'  I  replied,  '  Very 
well ;  go  and  thunder  tlie  doctrine  of  retribution 
in  their  cars,  Obadiah  15,  till  by  the  divine  bless- 
ing you  kill  or  cure  them.'  My  friends,  John 
M.  Nelson  of  Hillsborough,  Ohio,  Samuel  Linn, 
and  Robert  Herron,  and  others  of  the  same  vicin- 
ity, could  '  make  both  the  ears  of  every  one  who 
hearefh  them  tingle'  with  the  accounts  which  they 
can  give  of  slave-driving  by  professors  of  religion 
in  the    Shenandoah  Valley,  Virginia. 

"  In  1815,  near  Frederick,  in  Maryland,  a  most 
barbarous  planter  was  killed  in  a  fit  of  despera- 
tion, by  four  of  his  slaves  in  self-defence.  It  was 
declared  by  those  slaves  while  m  prison  that,  be- 
sides his  atrocities  among  their  female  associates, 
he  had  dehberately  butchered  a  number  of  his 
slaves.  The  four  men  were  murdered  by  law,  to 
appease  the  popular  clamor.  I  saw  them  execut- 
ed on  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  Jan'y,  1816.  The 
facts  I  received  from  the  Rev.  Patrick  Davidson  of 
Frederick,  who  constantly  visited  them  during 
their  imprisonment — and  wKo  became  an  aboli- 
tionist in  consequence  of  the  disclosures  which  he 
heard  from  those  men  in  the  jail.  The  name  of 
the  planter  is  not  distinctly  recollected,  bu*-  it  can 
be  known  by  an  inspection  of  the  record  of  the 
trial  in  the  clerk's  office,  Frederick. 

"A  minister  of  Virginia,  still  living,  and  whose 
name  must  not  be  mentioned  for  fear  of  Nero 
Preston  and  his  confederate-hanging  myrmidons, 
informed  me  of  this  fact  in  1815,  in  his  own  house. 
•■A  member  of  my  cliurch,  said  he,  lately  whip- 
ped a  colored  youth  to  death.  What  shall  I  do  V 
I  answel^d,  '  I  hope  you  do  not  mean  to  (;ontinue 
him  in  your  church.'  That  minister  replieii, 
'  How  can  we  help  it !'  We  daro  noi  call  him  to 
an  account.  We  have  no  legal  testimony.'  Their 
communion  season  was  then  approaching.  I  ad- 
dressed his  wife,—'  Mrs. do  you  mean  to  sit 

at  the  Lord's  table  with  that  murderer  ?'— '  Not  I,' 
she  answered  :  '  I  would  as.  soon  commune  with 
the  devil  himself.'  The  slave  killer  was  equally 
unnoticed  by  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority. 

"  John  Baxter,  a  Presbyterian  elder,  the  brother 
of  that  slaveholding  doctor  in  divinity,  George  A. 


Baxter,  held  as  a  slave  the  wife  of  a  Baptist  color- 
ed preacher,  familiarly  called  '  Uncle  Jack.'  lu 
a  late  period  of  pregnancy  he  scourged  her  so  that 
the  lives  of  herself  and  her  unborn  child  were  con- 
sidered in  jeopardy.  Uncle  Jack  was  advised  tf) 
obtain  the  liberation  of  his  wife.  Baxter  finally 
agreed,  I  think,  to  sell  the  woman  and  her  chil- 
dren, three  of  them,  I  believe  for  six  hundred 
dollars,  and  an  additional  hundred  if  the  unborn 
child  survived  a  certain  period  after  its  birth.  Uncle 
Jack  was  to  pay  one  hundred  dollars  per  annum 
for  his  wife  and  children  for  seven  years,  and  Bax- 
ter held  a  sort  of  mortgage  upon  them  for  the  pay- 
ment. Uncle  Jack  showed  me  his  back  in  fur- 
rows like  a  ploughed  field.  His  master  used  to 
wliip  up  the  flesh,  then  beat  it  downwards,  and 
then  apply  the  '  negro  plaster,''  salt,  pepper,  mus- 
tard, and  vinegar,  until  all  Jack's  back  was  almost 
as  hard  and  unimpressible  as  the  bones.  There  is 
slavcholding  religion  !  A  Presbyterian  elder  re- 
ceiving from  a  Baptist  preacher  seven  hundred 
dollars  for  his  wife  and  children.  James  Kyle 
and  uncle  Jack  used  to  tell  that  story  with  great 
Christian  sensibility ;  and  uncle  Jack  would  weep 
tears  of  anguish  over  his  wife's  piteous  tale,  and 
tears  of  ectasy  at  the  same  moment  that  he  was 
free,  and  that  soon,  by  the  grace  of  God,  his  wife- 
and  children,  as  he  said,  '  would  be  all  free  to- 
gether.' " 

Rev.  James  Nourse,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman 
of  Mifflin  CO.  Penn.,  whose  father  is,  we  believe, 
a  slaveholder  in  Washington  City,  says, — 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  M ,  now  of  the  Hunting- 
don Presbytery,  after  an  absence  of  many  months, 
was  about  visiting  his  old  friends  on  what  is  com- 
monly called  the  'Eastern  Shore.'  La'c  in  the 
afternoon,  on  his  journey,  he  called  at  the  house 

of  Rev.  A.  C.  of  P town,  Md.     With  this  bro. 

ther  he  had  been  long  acquainted.  Just  at  that 
juncture  Mr.  C.  was  about  proceeding  to  whip  a 
colored  female,  who  was  his  slave.  She  was 
firmly  tied  to  a  post  in  FRONT  of  his  dwelling- 
house.  The  arrival  of  a  clerical  visitor  at  such  a 
time,  occasioned  a  temporary  delay  in  the  execu- 
tion of  Mr.  C.'s  purpose.  But  the  delay  was  only 
temporary;  for  not  even  the  presence  of  such  a 
o-uest  could  destroy  the  bloody  design.  '1  he  guest 
interceded  with  all  the  mildness  yet  earnestness 
of  a  brotlier  and  new  visitor.  But  all  in  vain, 
'  the  woman  had  been  saucv  and  must  be  punish- 
ed.' The  cowhide  was  accordingly  produced,  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  C  ,  a  large  and  very  stout  man,  ap- 
plied it '  manfully'  on  '  woman's'  bare  and  '  shrink- 
ing flesh.'  I  say  bare,  because  you  know  that  the 
slave  women  generally  have  but  three  or  four 
inches  of  the  arm  near  the  shoulder  covered,  and 
the  neck  is  left  entirely  exposed.  As  the  cow- 
iiide  moved  back  and  forward,  striking  right  and 
left,  on  the  head,  neck  and  arms,  at  every  few 
strokes  the  sympathizing  guest  would  exclaim, 
'  O,  brother  C.  desist.'  But  brother  C.  pursued 
his  brutal  work,  till,  after  inflicting  about  sixly 
lashes,  the  woman  was  found  to  be  suffused  wilh 
blood  on  the  hinder  part  of  her  neck,  and  under 
her  frock  between  the  shoulders.  Yet  this  Rev. 
gentleman  is  well  esteemed  in  the  churcli — was, 
three  or  four  years  since,  moderator  of  the  synod  ^ 
of  Philadelphia,  and  yet  walks  abroad,  feeling 
himself  unrebuked  by  law  or  gospel.    Ah,  sir 


180 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


does  not  this  narration  give  fearful  force  to  the 
query — '  What  has  the  church  to  do  with  slavery  ?' 
Comment  on  the  facts  is  unnecessary,  yet  allow 
me  to  conclude  by  saying,  that  it  is  my  opinion 
such  occurrences  are  not  rare  in  the  south. 

J.  N." 

Rev,  Charles  Stewart  Renshaw,  of  Quincy, 
Illinois,  in  a  recent  letter,  speaking  of  his  resi- 
dence, for  a  period,  in  Kentucky,  says — 

"  In  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Robert  Willis,  he 
told  me  that  his  negro  girl  had  run  away  from  him 
some  time  previous.  He  was  convinced  that  she 
was  lurking  round,  and  he  watched  for  her.  He 
soon  found  the  place  of  her  concealment,  drew 
her  from  it,  got  a  rope,  and  tied  her  hands  across 
eacii  other,  then  threw  the  rope  over  a  beam  in 
the  kitchen,  and  hoisted  her  up  by  the  wrists  ; 
'  and,'  said  he,  '  I  whipped  her  there  till  I  made 
the  lint  fly,  I  tell  you.'  I  asked  him  the  mean- 
ing of  making  '  the  lint  fly,'  and  he  replied,  '  till 
the  blood  flcw.^  I  spoke  of  the  iniquity  and  cru- 
olty  of  slavery,  and  of  its  immediate  abandon- 
ment. He  confessed  it'  an  evil,  but  said,  '  I  am 
a  colonizaiio7iisl — I  believe  in  that  scheme.'  Mr. 
Willis  is  a  teacher  of  sacred  music,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Lexington, 
Kentucky." 

Mr.  R,  speaking  of  the  Presbyterian  Minis- 
ter and  church  where  he  resided,  says  : 

"  The  minister  and  all  the  church  members  held 
slaves.  Some  were  treated  kindly,  others  harsh- 
ly. There  was  not  a  shade  of  difference  between 
their  slaves  and  those  of  their  infidel  neighbors, 
either  in  their  physical,  intellectual,  or  moral 
state  :  in  some  cases  they  would  suffer  in  the  com- 
parison. 

"  In  the  kitchen  of  the  minister  of  the  church, 
a  slave  man  was  living  in  open  adultery  with  a 
slave  woman,  who  was  a  member  of  the  church, 
with  an  'assured  hope'  of  heaven — whilst  the 
man's  wife  was  on  the  minister's  farm  in  Fayette 
county.  The  minister  had  to  bring  a  cook  down 
irom  his  farm  to  the  place  in  which  he  was 
preaching.  The  choice  was  between  the  wife  of 
the  man  and  this  church  member.  He  left  the 
wife,  and  brought  the  church  member  to  the 
adulterer's  bed. 

"  A  Methodist  Preacher  last  fall  took  a  load 
of  produce  down  the  river.  Amongst  other 
things  he  took  down  five  slaves.  He  sold  them 
at  New  Orleans — he  came  up  to  Natchez — bought 
seven  there — and  to'^k  them  down  and  sold  them 
also.  Last  March  he  came  up  to  preach  the 
Gospel  again.  A  number  of  persons  on  board 
the  steamboat  (the  Tuscarora,)  who  had  seen 
him  in  the  slave-shambles  in  Natchez  and  New 
Orleans,  and  now,  for  the  first  time,  found  him 
to  be  a  preacher,  had  much  sport  at  the  expense 
of  '  the  fine  old  preacher  who  dealt  in  slaves.' 

"  A  non-professor  of  religion,  in  Campbell 
county,  Ky.  sold  a  female  and  two  children  to  a 
Methodist  professor,  with  the  proviso  that  they 
fihould  not  leave  that  region  of  country.  Tlie 
slave-drivers  came,  and  offered  S$50  more  for  the 
woman  than  lie  had  given,  and  he  sold  her.  She 
is  now  in  tlie  lower  country,  and  her  orphan  babes 
mre  in  Kentucky. 

"  I  was  much  shocked  once,  to  see  a  Prosbyte- 


rian  elder's  wife  call  a  little  slave  to  her  to  kiss 
her  feet.  At  first  the  boy  hesitated — but  the 
command  being  repeated  in  tones  not  to  be  mis- 
understood, he  approached  timidly,  knelt,  and 
kissed  her  foot. 

Rev.  W.  T.  .\llan,  of  Chatham,  Illinois,  gives 
the  following  in  a  letter  dated  Feb.  4,  1839  : 

"  i\Ir.  Peter  Vanarsdale,  an  elder  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  Carrollton,  formerly  from  Ken- 
tucky, told  mc,  the  other  day,  that  a  Mrs.  Bur- 
ford,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Harrodsburg,  Ken- 
tucky, had  separated  a  woman  and  her  children 
from  their  husband  and  father,  taking  them  into 
another  state.  Mrs.  li.  was  a  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  The  bereaved  husband 
and  father  was  also  a  professor  of  religion. 

"  iVlr.  V.  told  me  of  a  slave  woman  who  had 
lost  her  son,  separated  from  her  by  public  sale. 
In  the  anguish  of  her  soul,  she  gave  vent  to  her 
indignation  freely,  and  perhaps  harshly.  Some- 
time  after,  she  wished  to  become  a  member  of 
the  church.  Before  they  received  her,  she  had 
to  make  humble  confession  for  speaking  as  sh*- 
had  done.  Some  of  the  elders  that  received  her, 
and  required  the  confession,  were  engag  diiiselh 
ing  the  son  from  his  mother.'''' 

The  following  communication  from  the  Rev. 
William  Bardwell,  of  Sandwich,  Massachusetts, 
has  just  been  published  in  Zion's  Watchman^ 
New  York  city : 

"jTfr.  Editor: — The  following  fact  was  given 
me  last  evening,  from  the  pen  of  a  shipmaster, 
who  has  traded  in  several  of  the  principal  ports 
in  the  south.  He  is  a  man  of  unblemished  cha- 
racter, a  member  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  this 
place,  and  familiarly  known  in  this  town.  The 
facts  were  communicated  to  me  last  fall  in  a 
letter  to  his  wife,  with  a  request  that  she  would 
cause  them  to  be  published.  I  give  them  verba- 
tim, as  they  were  written  from  the  letter  by 
brother  Perry's  own  hand  while  I  was  in  hi» 
house. 

"  A  Methodist  preacher,  Wm.  Whitby  by  name, 
who  married  in  Bucksville,  S.  C,  and  by  mar 
riage  came  into  possession  of  some  slaves,  in  July, 
1838,  was  about  moving  to  another  station  to 
preach,  and  wished,  also,  to  move  his  family  and 
slaves  to  Tennessee,  much  against  the  will  of  the 
slaves,  one  of  which,  to  get  clear  from  him,  ran 
into  the  woods  after  swimming  a  brook.  The 
parson  took  after  him  with  his  gun,  vvliieh,  how- 
ever, got  wet  and  missed  fire,  when  he  ran  to  a 
neighbor  for  another  gun,  with  the  intention,  as 
he  said,  of  killing  him:  he  did  not,  however, 
catch  or  kill  him  ;  he  chained  another  for  fear  of 
his  ninnlng  away  also.  Tlie  above  particulars 
were  related  to  me  by  William  Whitbv  himself. 
Thomas  C.  Perrv. 

March  3,  1839." 

"  I  find  by  examining  the  minutes  of  the  S.  C. 
Conference,  that  there  is  such  a  preacher  in  the 
Conference,  and  brother  Perry  further  stated  to 
me  that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  him,  and  if 
this  statement  was  published,  and  if  it  could  be 
known  where  he  was  since  tlie  last  Confer, 
ence,  he  wished  a  paper  to  \>c  sent  him  contain, 
ing  the  whole  affair.     He  also  stated  to  me,  ve* 


OhjectioTis  Considerd — Public  Opinion. 


181 


bally,  that  the  young  man  he  attempted  to  shoot 
was  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  had  been 
shut  up  in  a  corn-house,  and  in  the  attempt  of 
Mr.  Whitby  to  chain  him,  he  broke  down  the 
door  and  made  his  escape  as  above  mentioned, 
and  that  Mr.  VV.  was  under  the  necessity  of 
hiring  him  out  for  one  year,  with  the  risk  of  his 
employer's  getting  him.  Brother  Perry  conversed 
with  one  of  the  slaves,  who  was  so  old  that  he 
thought  it  not  profitable  to  remove  so  far,  and 
had  been  sold ;  he  informed  him  of  all  the  above 
circumstances,  and  said,  with  tears,  that  he 
thought  he  had  been  so  faithful  as  to  be  entitled 
to  liberty,  but  instead  of  making  him  free,  he  had 
«old  him  to  another  master,  besides  parting  one 
husband  and  wife  from  those  ties  rendered  a 
thousand  times  dearer  by  an  infant  child  which 
was  torn  for  ever  from  the  husband. 

William  Bardwell." 
Sandwich,  Mass.,  March  4,  1839." 

Mr.  William  Poe,  till  recently  a  slaveholder 
m  Virginia,  now  an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church  at  Delhi,  Ohio,  gives  the  following  tes- 
timony : — 

"  An  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Lynchburg  had  a  most  faithful  servant,  whom  he 
flogged  severely  and  sent  him  to  prison,  and  had 
him  confined  as  a  felon  a  number  of  days,  for  be. 
tng  saucy.  Another  elder  of  the  same  church,  an 
auctioneer,  habitually  sold  slaves  at  his  stand — 
very  frequently  parted  families — would  often  go 
into  the  country  to  sell  slaves  on  execution  and 
otherwise  ;  when  remonstrated  with,  he  justified 
himself,  saying,  '  it  was  his  business  ;'  the  church 
also  justified  him  on  the  same  ground. 

''  A  Doctor  Duval,  of  Lynchburg,  Va.  got  of- 
fended with  a  very  faithful,  worthy  servant,  and 
immediately  sold  him  to  a  negro  trader,  to  be 
taken  to  Now  Orleans  ;  Duval  siHl  keeping  the 
wife  of  the  man  as  his  slave.  This  Duval  was  a 
professor  of  religion." 

Mr.  Samuel  Hall,  a  teacher  in  Marietta  Col- 
lege. Ohio,  says,  in  a  recent  letter  : — 

''  A  student  in  Marietta  College,  from  Missis. 
sippi,  a  professor  of  religion,  aijd  in  every  waj' 
worthy  of  entire  confidence,  made  to  me  the  fol. 
lowing  statement.  [If  his  name  were  published 
it  would  probably  cost  him  his  life.] 

"  When  I  was  in  the  family  of  the  Rev.  James 
Martin,  of  Louisville,  Winston  county,  Mississip- 
pi, in  the  spring  of  1838,  Mrs.  Martin  became  of- 
fended at  a  female  slave,  because  she  did  not  move 
faster.  She  commanded  her  to  do  so ;  the  girl 
quickened  her  pace  ;  again  she  was  ordered  to 
move  faster,  or,  Mrs.  M.  declared,  she  would 
break  the  broomstick  over  her  head.  Again  the 
slave  quickened  her  pace  ;  but  not  coming  up  to 
the  maximum  desired  by  Mrs.  M.  the  latter  de. 
clared  she  would  see  whether  she  (the  slave)  could 
move  or  not :  and,  going  into  another  apartment, 
she  brought  in  a  raw  hide,  awaiting  the  return  of 
tier  husband  for  its  application.  In  this  instance 
I  know  not  what  was  the  final  result,  but  I  have 
heard  the  sound  of  the  raw-hide  in  at  least  two 
other  instances,  applied  by  this  same  reverend 
gentleman  to  the  back  of  his  female  servant." 

Mr.  Hall  adds — "  The  name  of  my  mformaut 


must  be  suppressed,  as"  he  says,  "  there  are  those 
who  would  cut  my  throat  in  a  moment,  if  the  in. 
formation  I  give  were  to  be  coupled  with  my 
name."  Suffice  it  to  say  that  he  is  a  professor  of 
religion,  a  native  of  Virginia,  and  a  student  of 
Marietta  College,  whose  character  will  bear  the 
strictest  scrutinJ^     He  says  : — 

"  In  1838,  at  Charlestown,  Va.  I  conversed  with 
several  members  of  the  church  under  the  care  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Brown,  of  tiie  same  place.  Taking 
occasion  to  speak  of  slavery,  and  of  the  sin  of 
slaveholding,  to  one  of  them  who  was  a  lady,  she 
replied,  '  I  am  a  slaveholder,  and  I  glory  in  it.'  I 
had  a  conversation,  a  few  days  after,  with  the 
pastor  himself,  concerning  the  state  of  religion  in 
his  church,  and  who  were  tlic  most  exemplary 
members  in  it  The  pastor  mentioned  several  of 
those  who  were  of  that  description ;  the  first  of 
whom,  however,  was  the  identical  lady  who  glo. 
tied  in  being  a  slaveholder !  That  church  num- 
bers nearly  two  hundred  members. 

"  Another  lady,  who  was  considered  as  devoted 
a  Christian  as  any  in  the  same  church,  but  who 
was  in  poor  health,  was  accustomed  to  flog  some 
of  her  female  domestics  with  a  raw-hide  till  she 
was  exhausted,  and  then  go  and  lie  down  till  her 
strength  was  recruited,  rising  again  and  resuming 
the  flagellation.  This  she  considered  as  not  at  all 
derogatory  to  her  Christian  character." 

Mr.  Joel  S.  Bingham,  of  Cornwall,  Vermont, 
lately  a  student  in  Middlebury  College,  and  a 
member  of  the  Congregational  Church,  spent  a 
few  weeks  in  Kentucky,  in  the  summer  of  1838. 
He  relates  the  following  occurrence  which  took 
place  in  the  neighborhood  where  he  resided,  and 
was  a  matter  of  perfect  notoriety  in  the  vicinity. 

"  Rev.  Mr.  Lewis,  a  Baptist  minister  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  Frankfort,  Ky.  had  a  slave  that  ran 
away,  but  was  retaken  and  brought  back  to  his 
master,  who  threatened  him  with  punishment 
for  making  an  attempt  to  escape.  Though  terri- 
fied  the  slave  immediately  attempted  to  run  away 
again.  Mr.  L.  commanded  him  to  stop,  but  he 
did  not  obey.  Mr.  L.  then  took  a  gun,  loaded 
with  small  shot  and  fired  at  the  slave,  who  fell; 
but  was  not  killed,  and  afterward  recovered.  Mr. 
L.  did  not  probably  intend  to  kill  the  slave,  as  it 
was  his  legs  which  were  aimed  at  and  received 
the  contents  of  the  gun.  The  master  asserted 
that  he  was  driven  to  this  necessity  to  maintain 
his  authority.  This  took  place  about  the  first  of 
July,  1838." 

The  following  is  given  upon  the  authority  of 
Rev.  Orange  Scott,  o.f  Lowell,  Mass.  for  many 
years  a  presiding  elder  in  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church. 

"  Rev.  Joseph  Hough,  a  Baptist  minister,  for- 
merly of  Springfield,  Mass.  now  of  Plainfield,  N. 
H.  while  traveling  in  the  south,  a  few  years  ago, 
put  up  one  night  with  a  Method'st  family,  and 
spent  the  Sabbath  with  them.  While  there,  one 
of  the  female  slaves  did  something  which  dis- 
pleased her  mistress.  She  took  a  chisel  and  mal- 
let,  and  very  deliberately  cut  off  one  of  her 
toes  I" 


182 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


SLAVE  BREEDING  an  index  of  '  public  opi- 
nion'  AMONG    THE    'HIGHEST   CLASS    OF   SOCIETY* 

IN  Virginia  and  other  northern  slave  states. 

But  we  shall  be  told,  that  '  slave-breeders'  are 
regarded  with  contempt,  and  the  business  of  slave 
breeding  is  looked  upon  as  despicable  ;  and  the 
hot  disclaimer  of  Mr.  Stevenson,  our  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  in  reply 
to  Mr.O'Connell,  who  had  intimated  that  he  might 
be  a  '  slave  breeder,'  will  doubtless  be  quoted.*  In 
reply,  we  need  not  say  what  every  body  knows, 
that  if  Mr.  Stevenson  is  not  a  '  slave  breeder,'  he 
is  a  solitary  exception  among  the  large  slave- 
holders of  Virginia.  What !  Virginia  slavehold- 
I  ^rs  not  '  slave-breeders  ?'  the  pretence  is  ridicu- 
Ions  and  contemptible ;  it  is  meanness,  hypocrisy, 
:ind  falsehood,  as  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  tes- 
timony which  follows : — 

Mr.  Gholson,  of  Virginia,  in  his  speech  in  the 
Legislature  of  that  state,  Jan.  18,  1831,  (sec  Rich- 
mond Whig,)  says  : — 

"It  has  always  (perhaps  erroneously)  been  con- 
sidered by  steady  and  old-fashioned  people,  that 
the  ovi'ner  of  land  had  a  reasonable  right  to  its  an- 
nual profits;  the  owner  of  orchards,  to  their  an- 
nual fruits;  the  owner  of  brood  nuires^  to  their 
product ;  and  the  owner  oi female  slaves,  to  their 
incrrnfie.  We  have  not  the  fine-spun  intelligence, 
nor  legal  acumen,  to  discover  the  technical  dis- 
tinctions drawn  by  gentlemen.  The  legal  maxim 
ni'' Partus  seqnitnr  nentrem'  is  coeval  with  the 
oxislencc  cf  tiie  rights  of  property  itself,  and  is 
founded  in  wisdnni  and  justice.  It  is  on  the  jus- 
tice and  inviolability  of  tiiis  maxim  that  the  mas- 
ter foregoes  the  service  of  the  female  slave  ;  has 
her  nursed  and  attended  during  the  period  of  her 
gestation,  and  raises  the  helpless  and  infant  off- 
spring. The  value  of  the  property  justifies  the 
expense  ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  lo  say,  that  in  its 
irtcreasc  consists  much  of  our  wealth." 

Hon.  Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  of  Virginia, 
formerly  Governor  of  that  state,  in  his  speech  be- 
fore the  legislature  in  1832,  while  speaking  of  the 

*  The  followini;  Is  Mr.  Stevenson's  disclaimer :  it  was 
puhlislicd  in  the  '  London  Mail,'  Oct.  30,  1838. 

To  tlip  Editor  of  the  Evening-  Mail: 

Sir — I  did  not  sic;  until  niy  return  from  Scotland  the  note 
addressed  by  Mr.  O'ConncIl,  to  the  editor  of  the  Chronicle, 
purporting  to  give  an  explanation  of  the  correspondence 
wliich  lias  passed  between  us,  and  which  I  deemed  it  proper 
to  make  public.  I  do  not  intend  to  be  drawn  into  any  dis- 
cussion of  the  suliject  of  domestic  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the 
United  States,  nor  to  give  any  explanation  of  the  motives  or 
circumstances  under  wliich  I  have  acted. 

Disposed  to  regard  Mr.  O'Connell  as  a  man  of  honor,  I 
was  induced  to  take  the  course  I  did  ;  whether  justifiable 
or  not,  the  world  will  now  decide.  The  tone  and  report  of 
his  last  note  'in  which  Jie  disavows  r(;sponsibility  for  any 
thing  he  may  sayl  precludes  any  further  notice  from  me, 
tlian  to  say  tliat  the  charge  which  he  has  thought  proper 
again  to  repeat,  of  my  being  a  breeder  of  slaves  for  sale  and 
traffick,  is  wholly  destitute  of  truth  ;  and  that  I  am  warrant- 
ed in  believing  it  has  been  made  by  him  without  the  slight 
<?st  autliority.     Smi,  too,  I  venture  to  say.  is  thk  CAse 

IN  relation  to  bis  charge  of  SLAVE-BREEDINQ  IN  VlRGI- 
.NIA. 

I  make  this  declaration,  not  because  I  admit  Mr.  O'Con- 
uell's  rifiht  to  call  for  it,  but  to  prevent  my  silence  from 
being  misinterpreted. 

A.  Stevenson. 

23  Portland  Place,  Oct.  29 


number  of  slaves  annually  sold  from  Virginia  to 
the  more  southern  slave  states,  said  : — 

"  The  exportation  has  averaged  eight  thou- 
sand FIVE  HUNDRED  for  the  last  twenty  years. 
Forty  years  ago,  the  whites  exceeded  the  color- 
ed 25,000,  the  colored  now  exceed  the  whites 
81,000  ;  and  these  results  too  during  an  exporta- 
tion of  near  260,000  slaves  since  the  year  1790, 
now  perhaps  the  fruitful  progenitors  of  half  a 
million  in  other  states.  It  is  a  practice  and  an  in- 
creasing practice, » in  parts  of  Virginia,  to  rear 
slaves  for  market.  How  can  an  honorable  mind, 
a  patriot  and  a  lover  of  his  country,  bear  to  see 
this  ancient  dominion  converted  into  one  grand 
menagerie,  where  men  are  to  be  reared  for  market, 
1-ike  oxen  for  the  shambles." 

Professor  Dew,  now  President  of  the  Universi- 
ty of  William  and  Mary,  Virginia,  in  his  Review 
of  the  Debate  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  1831-2, 
says,  p  49. 

"  From  all  the  information  we  can  ob- 
tain, we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  up- 
wards of  six  thousand  [slaves]  are  yearly  ex- 
ported [from  Virginia]  to  other  states.'  Again, 
p.  61  :  '  The  6000  slaves  which  Virginia  annual. 
ly  .sends  off  to  the  south,  are  a  source  of  wealth 
to  Virginia.' — Again,  p.  120  :  '  A  full  equivalent 
being  thus  left  in  the  place  of  the  slave,  this  emi- 
gration becomes  an  advantage  to  the  state,  and 
does  not  check  the  black  population  as  much  aSj 
at  first  view,  we  might  imagine — because  it  fur- 
nishes every  inducement  to  the  master  to  attend 
fo  the  negroes,  to  encouiiage  breeding,  and  te 
cause  the  greatest  number  possible  to  be  raised. 
&c." 

*'  Virginia  is,  in  fact,  a  negro-raising  state  fat 
other  states." 

Extract  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Faulkner,  ij 
theVa.  House  of  Delegates,  1832.  [See  Rich 
mond  Whig.] 

"  But  he  [Mr.  Gholson,]  ha«i  labored  to  shov 
tliat  the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  vrere  it  practicable, 
would  be  impolitic,  because  .<s  the  drift  of  thu 
portion  of  his  argument  run  j,  your  slaves  coi.- 
stitute  the  entire  wealth  of  the  state,  all  il.j 
productive  capacity  Virginia  possesses.  And,  sir, 
as  things  are,  /  believe  he  is  correct.  He  says, 
and  in  this  he  is  sustained  by  the  gentleman  from 
Halifax,  Mr.  Bruce,  that  the  slaves  constitute  the 
entire  available  wealth  at  present,  of  Eastern  Virgi- 
nia. Is  it  true  that  for  200  years  the  only  in- 
crease in  the  wealth  and  resources  of  Virginia, 
has  been  a  remnant  of  the  natural  increase  of 
this  miserable  race  ? — Can  it  be,  that  on  this  in- 
crease, she  places  her  sole  dependence  ?  I  had 
always  understood  that  indolence  and  extrava- 
gance were  the  necessary  concomitants  of  slave- 
ry ;  but,  until  I  heard  these  declarations,  I  had 
not  fully  conceived  the  horrible  extent  of  tins  evil. 
These  gentlemen  state  the  fact,  which  the  histo- 
ry and  present  aspect  of  the  Commonvealth  but 
too  well  sustain.  The  gentlemen's  facts  and  ar- 
gument  in  support  of  his  plea  of  impolicy,  to  me, 
seem  rather  unha])py.  To  me,  sucii  a  state  of 
things  would  itself  be  conclusive  at  least,  that 
something,  even  as  a  measure  of  I'.ilicy,  should 
be  done.      What,   sir,   have   you  lived    for   two 


OhjeCtims  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


183 


hundred  years,  without  personal  efFort  or  produc- 
tive industry,  in  extravagance  and  indolence, 
sustained  alone  by  the  return  frovi  sales  of  the 
i?tc/-e«st' o/iV«i'es,  and  retaining  merely  such  a 
number  as  your  now  impoverished  lands  can  sus- 
tain, AS  STOCK,  depending,  too,  upon  a  inost  un- 
certain market  ?  When  that  market  is  closed,  as 
in  the  nature  of  things  it  must  be,  what  then 
will  become  of  this  gentleman's  hundred  millions 
worth  of  slaves,  and  the  annual  product  ?" 

In  the  debates  in  the  Virginia  Convention, 
in  1829,  Judge  Upshcr  said — "  The  value  of  slaves 
as  an  article  of  property  [and  it  is  in  that  view 
only  that  they  arc  legitimate  subjects  of  taxation] 
depends  much  on  the  state  of  the  market  abroad. 
In  this  view,  it  is  the  value  of  land  abroad,  and 
not  of  land  here,  which  furnishes  the  ratio.  It  is 
well  known  to  us  all,  that  nothing  is  more  fluc- 
tuating than  the  value  of  slaves.  A  late  law  of 
Louisiana  reduced  their  value  25  per  cent,  in  two 
hours  after  its  passage  was  known.     If  it  should 

BE  OUR  lot,  as  I  trust  IT  WILL  BE,  TO  ACaUIRE 
THE  COUNTRY  OF  TeXAS,  THEIR  PRICE  WILL  RISE 
AGAIN."— p.    77. 

Mr.  Goode,  of  Virginia,  in  his  speech  before 
the  Virginia  Legislature,  in  Jan.  1832,  [See 
Richmond  Whig,  of  that  date,]  said  : — 

"  The  superior  usefulness  of  the  slaves  in  the 
south,  will  constitute  an  effectual  demand,  which 
will  remove  them  from  our  limits.  We  sliall 
send  them  from  our  state,  because  it  will  be  our 
interest  to  do  so.  Our  planters  arc  already  be- 
coming farmers.  Many  who  grow  tobacco  as 
their  only  staple,  have  already  introduced,  and 
commingled  the  wheat  crop.  They  are  al- 
ready semi-farmers  ;  and  in  the  natural  course 
of  events,  they  must  become  more  and  more 
so. — As  the  greater  quantity  of  rich  western 
lands  are  appropriated  to  the  production  of  the 
staple  of  our  planters,  that  staple  will  become 
less  profitable.— We  shall  gradually  divert  our 
lands  from  its  production,  until  we  shall  become 
actual  farmers. — Then  will  the  necessity  for 
slave  labor  diminish  ;  then  will  the  effectual 
demand  diminish,  and  then  will  the  quantity  of 
slaves  diminish,  until  they  shall  be  adapted  to  the 
effectual  demand, 

"  But  gentlemen  are  alarmed  lest  the  markets 
of  other  states  be  closed  against  the  introduction 
of  our  slaves.  Sir,  the  demand  for  slave  labor 
MUST  INCREASE  througli  the  South  and  West.  It 
has  been  heretofore  limited  by  the  want  of  cap. 
ital ;  but  when  emigrants  shall  be  relieved  from 
their  embarrassments,  contracted  by  the  purchase 
of  their  lands,  the  annual  profits  of  their  estates, 
will  constitute  an  accumulating  capital,  which 
they  will  seek  to  invest  in  labor.  That  the  de- 
mand for  labor  must  increase  in  proportion  to 
the  increase  of  capital,  is  one  of  the  demonstra- 
tions of  political  economists  ;  and  I  confess,  that 
for  the  removal  of  slavery  from  Virginia,  I  look 
to  the  efficacy  of  that  principle  ;  together  with 
the  circumstance  that  our  southern  brethren  are 
constrained  to  continue  planters,  by  their  position, 
soil  and  climate." 

The  following  is  from  Niles'  Weekly  Register, 
published  at  Baltimore,  Md.  vol.  35.  p.  4. 

"  Dealing  in  slaves  has  become  a  large  busi- 


ness;  establishments  are  made  in  several  places 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  at  which  they  arc  sold 
like  cattle  ;  these  places  of  deposit  are  strongly 
built,  and  well  supplied  with  thumb-screws  and 
gags,  and  ornamented  with  cow-skins  and  other 
whips  oftentimes  bloody." 

R.  S.  FiNLY,  Esq.  late  General  Agent  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society,  at  a  meeting  in 
New  York,  27th  Feb.  1833,  said  ; 

"  In  Virginia  and  other  grain-growing  slave 
states,  the  blacks  do  not  support  themselves,  and 
the  only  profit  their  masters  derive  from  them  is, 
repulsive  as  the  idea  may  justly  seem,  in  breeding 
them,  like  other  live  stock  for  the  more  southern 
states." 

Rev.  Dr.  Graham,  of  Fayetteville,  N.  C.  at  a 
Colonization  Meeting,  held  in  that  place  in  the 
fall  of  1837  said  : 

"  He  had  resided  for  15  years  in  one  of  the  larg- 
est slaveholding  countiesin  the  state,  had  long  and 
anxiously  considered  the  subject,  and  still  it  wa<» 
dark.  There  were  nearly  7000  slaves  offered  in 
New  Orleans  market  last  winter.  From  Virginia 
alone  6000  were  annually  sent  to  the  south  ;  and 
from  Virginia  and  N.  C.  there  had  gone,  in  the 
same  direction,  in  the  last  twenty  years,  300,000 
slaves.  While  not  40U0  had  gone  to  Africa. 
What  it  portended,  he  could  not  predict,  but  ho 
felt  deeply;  that  we  must  awake  in  these  states 
and  consider  the  subject." 

Hon.  Philip  Doddridge,  of  Virginia,  in  his 
speech  in  the  Virginia  Convention,  in  1829,  [Dc- 
bates  p.  89.]  said  : — 

"  The  acquisition  of  Texas  will  greatly  eii- 
hance  the  value  of  the  property,  in  question,  [Vir- 
ginia slaves.]" 

Hon.  C.  F.  Mercer,  in  a  speech  before  the  same 
Convention,  in  1829,  says  : 

"  The  tables  of  the  natural  growth  of  the  slave 
population  demonstrate,  when  compared  with  the 
increase  of  its  numbers  in  the  commonwealtii  for 
twenty  years  past,  that  an  annual  revenue  of  not 
less  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  is  derived 
from  the  exportation  of  a  part  of  this  population.' 
(Debates,  p.  199.) 

Hon.  Henry  Clay,  of  Ky.,  in  his  speech  before 
the  Colonization  Society,  in  1829,  says  : 

"  It  is  believed  that  nowhere  in  t'le  farming 
portion  of  the  United  States,  would  slave  labor  be 
generally  employed,  if  the  proprietor  were  not 
tempted  to  raise    slaves  by  the   high  price  of 

THE  SOUTHERN  MARKET  WHICH  KEEPS  IT  UP  IN  HIS 
OWN." 

The  New  Orleans  Courier,  Feb.  15,  1839, 
speaking  of  the  prohibition  of  the  African  slave^ 
trade,  while  the  internal  slave-trade  is  plied,  says  : 

"  The  United  States  law  may,  and  probablv 
docs,  put  MILLIONS  into  the  pockets  of  the  people 
lilting  between  the  Roanoke,  and  Mason  and 
Dixon^s  line ;  still  we  think  it  would  require  some 
casuistry  to  show  that  the  present  slave-trad^ 
from  that  quarter  is  a  whit  better  than  the  onff 
from  Africa.     One  thing  is  certain — that  its  re 


184 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


suits  arc  more  menacing  to  the  tranquillity  of  the 
people  in  this  quarter,  as  there  can  be  no  compa- 
rison between  the  ability  and  inclination  to  do  mis- 
chief, posscisscd  by  the  Virfrinia  negro,  and  that 
of  the  rude  and  ignorant  African." 

That  the  New  Orleans  Editor  does  not  exagge- 
rate in  saying  that  the  internal  slave-trade  puts 
'  millions '  into  the  pockets  of  the  slaveholders  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  is  very  clear  from  the 
following  statement,  made  by  the  editor  of  the 
Virginia  Times,  an  influential  political  paper,  pub. 
lished  at  Wheeling,  Virginia.  Of  the  exact  date 
of  the  paper  we  arc  not  quite  certain,  it  was,  how- 
ever, sometime  in  1836,  probably  near  the  middle 
of  the  year — the  file  will  show.  The  editor 
says : — 

"  We  have  heard  intelligent  men  estimate  the 
number  of  slaves  exported  from  Virginia  within 
the  last  twelve  months,  at  120,000 — each  slave 
averaging  at  least  ^600,  making  an  aggregate  at 
$72,000,000.  Of  the  number  of  slaves  exported, 
not  more  than  one-third  have  been  sold,  (the 
others  having  been  carried  by  their  owners,  who 
have  removed,)  which  would  leave  in  the  state  the 
auM  OF   $24,000,000  akising   from  the  sale   of 

SLAVES." 

According  to  this  estimate  about  FORTY 
THOUSAND  SLAVES  were  sold  out  of  the 
State  of  Virginia  in  a  single  year,  and  the 
'  slavc-brceders'  who  hold  them,  put  into  their 
pockets  twentv-four  million  of  dollars,  the 
price  of  the  '  souls  of  men.' 

The  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  of  Oct. 
12,  1835,  contained  a  letter  from  a  Virginian, 
whom  the  editor  calls  '  a  very  good  and  sensible 
man,'  asserting  that  twenty  thousand  slaves  had 
been  driven  to  the  south  from  Virginia  during 
that  year,  nearly  one-fourth  of  which  was  then 
remaining. 

The  Maryville  (Tcnn.)  Intelligencer,  some 
time  in  the  early  part  of  1836,  (we  have  not  the 
date,)  says,  in  an  article  reviewing  a  communi- 
cation of  Rev.  J.  W.  Douglass,  of  Fayetteville 
North  Carolina  :"  Sixty  thousand  slaves  passed 
through  a  little  western  town  for  tlie  soutliern  mar- 
ket, during  the  year  1835." 

The  Natchez  (Miss.)  Courier,  says  "  that  the 
states  of  Lfiuisiana,  Mifsissippi,  Alabama,  and 
Arkansas,  imported  TWO  HUNDRED  AND 
FIFTY  THOUSAND  SLAVES  from  the  more 
northern  slave  states  in  the  y»;ar  1836." 

The  Baltimore  American  gives  the  following 
from  a  Mississippi  paper,  of  1837  : 

"The  report  made  by  the  committee  of  the 
citizens  of  Mobile,  apjjointed  at  tlieir  meeting 
held  on  the  1st  instant,  on  the  subject  of  the 
existing  pecuniary  pressure,  states,  among  other 
things  :  that  so  large  has  been  the  return  of  slave 
labor,  tliat  purchases  by  Alabama  of  that  species 
of  pro])crty  from  other  states  since  1833,  have 
amounted  to  about  ten  million  dollars  annu- 
ally." 


Further  the  inhumanity  of  a  slaveholdmg 
'  public  opinion'  toward  slaves,  follows  legitimately 
from  the  downright  ruffianism  of  the  slavchold- 
ing  spirit  in  the  '  highest  class  of  society.' 
When  roused,  it  tramples  upon  all  the  proprie- 
ties  and  courtesies,  and  even  common  decencies 
of  life,  and  is  held  in  check  by  none  of  those  con- 
siderations of  time,  and  place,  and  relations  of 
station,  character,  law,  and  national  honor,  which 
are  usually  sufficient,  even  in  the  absence  of  con. 
scientious  principles,  to  restrain  other  men  from 
outrages.  Our  National  Legislature  is  a  fit  illus- 
tration of  this.  Slavelioldcrs  have  converted  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  into  a  very  bear  gar- 
den. Within  the  last  three  years  some  of  the  most 
prominent  slaveholding  members  of  the  House, 
and  among  them  the  late  speaker,  have  struck 
and  kicked,  and  throttled,  and  seized  each  othei 
by  the  hair,  and  with  their  fists  pummelled  each 
other's  faces,  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  We  need 
not  publish  an  account  of  what  every  body  knows, 
that  during  the  session  of  the  last  Congress,  Mr. 
Wise  of  Virginia  and  Mr.  Bynum  of  North  Ca. 
rolina,  after  having  called  each  other  "  liars,  vil- 
lains" and  '•  damned  rascals"  sprung  from  theii 
seats  "  both  sufficiently  armed  for  any  desperate 
purpose,"  cursing  each  other  as  they  rushed  to- 
gether, and  would  doubtless  have  butchered 
each  other  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  if  both  had 
not  been  seized  and  held  by  their  friends. 

The  New  York  Gazette  relates  the  following 
which  occurred  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  1838. 

"  The  House  could  not  adjourn  without  ano- 
ther brutal  and  bloody  row.  It  occurred  on  Sun- 
day morning  immediately  at  the  moment  of  ad- 
journment, between  Messrs.  Campbell  and  Mau- 
ry, both  of  Tennessee.  He  took  offence  at  somo 
remarks  made  to  him  by  his  colleague,  Mr.  Camp, 
bell,  and  the  fight  followed." 

The  Huntsville  (Ala.)  Democrat  of  June  16, 
1838,  gives  the  particulars  which  follow  : 

"  Mr.  Manry  is  said  to  be  badly  hurt.  He  was 
near  losing  his  life  by  being  knocked  through  the 
window;  but  his  adversary,  it  is  said,  saved  him 
by  clutching  the  hair  of  his  iiead  with  his  left 
hand,  wiiile  he  struck  him  with  his  right." 

The  same  number  of  the  Huntsville  Democrat, 
contains  the  particulars  of  a  fist-fight  on  the  floot 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  between  Mr. 
Bell,  the  late  Speaker,  and  his  colleague  Mr. 
Turney  of  Tennessee.  The  following  is  an  ex- 
tract : 

"  Mr.  Turney  concluded  his  remarks  in  reply  to 
Mr.  Bell,  in  the  course  of  whicli  he  commented 
upon  that  gentleman's  course  at  diffirenl  periods 
of  his  political  career  with  great  severity. 

"  He  did  not  think  Iiis  colleague  [Mr.  Turney,] 
was  actuated  by  private  malice,  but  was  the  wil. 
ling  voluntary  instrument  of  others,  the  fool  of 
fools. 


Ohjectiom  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


li 


Mr.  Tumey,     It  )s  false !  it  is  false  I 

Mr.  Stanley  called  Mr.  Turkey  to  order. 

At  the  same  moment  both  gentlemen  were 
perceived  in  personal  conflict,  and  blows  with  the 
fist  V  ere  aimed  by  each  at  the  other.  Several 
members  interfered,  and  suppressed  the  per- 
sonal violence  ;  others  called  order,  order,  and 
some  called  for  the  interference  of  the  .Speaker. 

The  Speaker  hastily  took  the  chair,  and  in- 
sisted upon  order  ;  but  both  gentlemen  continued 
struggling,  and  endeavoring,  notwithstanding 
the  constraint  of  their  friends,  to  strike  each  other." 

The  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Gazette 
gives  the  following,  which  took  place  about  the 
time  of  the  preceding  affrays  : 

The  House  was  much  agitated  last  night,  by 
the  passage  between  Mr.  Biddle,  of  Pittsburgh, 
and  Mr.  Downing,  of  Florida.  Mr.  D.  ex- 
claimed "  do  you  impute  falsehood  to  me  I"  at 
the  same  time  catching  up  -ome  missile  and 
making  a  demonstration  to  advance  upon  Mr. 
Biddle.  Mr.  Biddle  repeated  his  accusation, 
and  meanwhile,  Mr.  Downing  was  arrested  by 
many  members." 

"  The  last  three  fights  all  occurred,  if  we  mistake 
not,  in  the  short  space  of  one  month.  The  fisti. 
cuffs  between  Messrs.  Bynum  and  Wise  occurred 
at  the  previous  session  of  Congress.  At  the  same 
session  Messrs.  Peyton  of  Tenn.  and  Wise  of  Vir- 
ginia, went  armed  with  pistols  and  dirks  to  the 
meeting  of  a  committee  of  Congress,  and  threat- 
ened to  shoot  a  witness  while  giving  his  testimony. 

We  begin  with  the  first  on  the  list.  Who  are 
Messrs.  Wise  and  Bynum  ?  Both  slaveholders. 
Who  are  Messrs.  Campbell  and  Maury  ?  Both 
slaveholders.  Who  are  Messrs.  Bell  and  Tur- 
ney?  Both  slaveholders.  Who  is  Mr.  Downing, 
who  seized  a  weapon  and  rushed  upon  Mr.  Bid- 
dle ?  A  slaveholder.  Who  is  Mr.  Peyton  who 
drew  his  pistol  on  a  witness  before  a  committee  of 
Congress?  A  slaveholder  of  course.  All  these 
bullies  were  slaveholders,  and  they  magnified 
their  office,  and  slaveholding  was  justified  of  her 
children.  We  might  fill  a  volume  with  similar 
chronicles  of  slaveholding  brutality.  But  time 
would  fail  us.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  since  the  or- 
ganization of  the  government,  a  majority  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  in  the  slaveiiolding  states 
have  gloried  in  strutting  over  the  stage  in  the 
character  of  murderers.  Look  at  the  men  whom 
the  people  delight  to  honor.  President  Jackson, 
Senator  Benton,  the  late  Gen  Coffee, — it  is  but  a 
few  years  since  these  slaveholders  shot  at,  and 
stabbed,  and  stamped  upon  each  other  in  a  tavern 
broil.  General  Jackson  had  previously  killed  Mr. 
Dickenson.  Senator  Clay  of  Kentucky  has  im- 
mortalized himself  by  shooting  at  a  near  relative 
of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and  being  wounded  by 
him  ;  and  not  long  after  by  shooting  at  John  Ran- 
dolph of  Virginia.  Governor  M'Duffie  of  South 
Carolina  has  signalized  himself  also,  both  by  shoot- 
ing and  being  shot, — so  has  Governor  Poindexter, 


and  Governor  Rowan,  and  Judge  M'Kinley  of  the 
U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  late  senator  in  Congress 
from  Alabama, — but  we  desist ;  a  full  catalogue 
would  fill  pages.  We  will  only  add,  that  a  few 
months  since,  in  the  city  of  London,  Governor 
Hamilton,  of  South  Carolina,  went  armed  with  pis- 
tols, to  the  lodgings  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  '  to  stop 
his  wind'  in  the  bullying  slang  of  his  own  publish- 
ed boast.  During  the  last  session  of  Congress 
Messrs.  Dromgoole  and  Wise*  of  Virginia,  W. 
Cost  Johnson  and  Jenifer  of  Maryland,  Pickens 
and  Campbell  of  South  Carolina,  and  we  know  not 
how  m  anymore  slaveholdin  g  m  embers  of  Congress? 
have  been  engaged,  either  as  principals  or  seconds, 
in  that  species  of  murder  dignified  with  the  name 
of  duelling.  But  enough  ;  we  are  heart-sick.  What 
meaneth  all  this  ?  Are  slaveholders  worse  than 
other  men?  No!  but  arbitrary  power  has 
wrought  in  them  its  mystery  of  iniquity,  and  poi- 
soned their  better  nature  with  its  infuriating 
sorcery. 

Their  savage  ferocity  toward  each  other  when 
their  passions  are  up,  is  the  natural  result  of  their 
habit  of  daily  plUi-Joring  and  oppressing  the  slave. 

The  North  Carolina  Standard  of  August  30, 
1837,  contains  the  following  illustration  of  this 
ferocity  exhibited  by  two  southern  lawyers  in  set- 
tling the  preliminaries  of  a  duel. 

"  The  following  conditions  were  proposed  by 
Alexander  K.  McClimg,  of  Raymond,  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi,  to  H.  C.  Stewart,  as  the 
laws  to  govern  a  duel  they  were  to  fight  near 
Vicksburg  : 

Article  1st.  The  parties  shall  meet  opposite 
Vicksburg,  in  the  State  of  Louisiana,  on  Thurs- 
day the  29th  inst.  precisely  at  4  o'clock.  P.  M. 
Agreed  to. 

2d.  The  weapons  to  be  used  by  each  shall 
weigh  one  pound  two  and  a  half  ounces,  measur- 
ing sixteen  inches  and  a  half  in  lengih,  including 
the  handle,  and  one  inch  and  three-eighths  in 
breadth.    Agreed  to. 

3d.  Both  knives  shall  be  sharp  on  one  edge, 
and  on  the  back  shall  be  sharp  only  one  inch  at 
the  point.     Agreed  to. 

4th.  Each  party  shall  stand  at  the  distance 
of  eight  feet  from  the  other,  until  the  word  is 
given.     Agreed  to. 

5th.  The  second  of  each  party  shall  throw 
up,  with  a  silver  dollar,  on  the  ground,  for  the 
word,  and  two  best  out  of  three  shall  win  the 
word.  Agreed  to. 

6th.  After  the  wora  is  given,  either  party 
may  take  what  advantage  he  can  with  his  knife, 
but  on  throwing  his  knife  at  the  other,  shall  be 
shot  down  by  the  second  of  his  opponent. 
Agreed  to. 

7th.  Each  party  shall  be  stripped  entirely 
naked,  except  one  pair  of  linen  pantaloons  ; 
one  pair  of  socks,  and  boots  or  pumps  as  the 
party  please.     Acceded  to. 

8th.    The  wrist  of  the  left  arm  of  each  party 

*  Mr.  Wise  said  in  one  of  his  spperlies  during  the  last 
session  of  Congress,  that  lie  was  obliged  to  go  armed  for 
the  protection  of  his  life  in  Washiugtoa.  It  could  not 
have  been  for  fear  of  JVorthem  men. 


186 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


shall  he  tied  tight  to  his  left  thigh,  and  a  stron  g 
cord  shall  bo  fastened  around  his  left  arm  at  th  e 
elbow,  and  then  around  his  body.     Rejected. 

9th.  After  the  word  is  given,  each  party 
shall  be  allowed  to  advance  or  recede  as  he 
pleases,  over  the  space  of  twenty  acres  of  ground, 
until  death  ensues  to  one  of  the  parties.  Agreed 
to — the  parties  to  be  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
space. 

10th.  The  word  shall  be  given  by  the  wm- 
ner  of  the  same,  in  the  following  manner,  viz  : 
"  Gentlemen  are  you  ready  ?"  Each  party 
shall  then  answer,  "  I  am  !"  The  second  giv- 
ing the  word  shall  then  distinctly  command — 
strike.    Agreed  to. 

If  either  party  shall  violate  these  rules,  upon 
being  notified  by  the  second  of  either  party,  he 
may  be  liable  to  be  shot  down  instantly.  As 
established  usage  points  out  the  duty  of  both 
parties,  therefore  notification  is  considered  unne- 
cessary." 

The  FAVORITE  AMUSEMENTS  of  slaveholders,  like 
the  gladiatorial  shows  of  Rome  and  the  Bull 
Fights  of  Spain,  reveal  a  public  feeling  insensible 
to  suffering,  and  a  degree  of  brutality  in  the  high- 
esst  degree  revolting  to  every  truly  noble  mind. 
One  of  their  most  common  njii  ^cments  is  cock 
fighting.  Mains  of  cocks,  wi  a  twenty,  thirty, 
and  fifty  cocks  on  eachside,are  fought  for  hundreds 
of  dollars  aside.  The  fowls  are  armed  with  steel 
spurs  or  '  gnfts,'  about  two  inches  long.  These 
'  gafts'  are  fastened  upon  the  legs  by  sawing  off 
the  natural  '  spur,'  leaving  enough  only  of  it  to 
ansver  the  purpose  of  a  stock  for  the  tube  of  the 
"  gafts,"  which  are  so  sharp  that  at  a  stroke  the 
fowls  thrust  them  through  each  other's  necks  and 
lieads,  and  tear  each  other's  bodies  till  one  or  both 
dies,  then  two  others  are  brought  forward  for 
the  amusement  of  the  multitude  assembled,  and 
this  barbarous  pastime  is  often  kept  up  for  days 
in  succession,  hundreds  and  thousands  gathering 
from  a  distance  to  witness  it.  The  following  ad- 
vertisements from  the  Raleigh  Register,  June  18, 
1838,  edited  by  Messrs.  Gales  and  Son,  the  father 
and  brother  of  Mr.  Gales,  editor  of  the  National 
Intelligencer,  and  late  Mayor  of  Wasiiington 
City,  reveal  the  public  sentiment  of  Is'orth  Caro- 
lina. 

"CHATHAM  AGAINST  NASH,  or  any 
other  county  in  the  State.  I  am  authorized  to 
take  a  bet  of  any  amount  that  may  be  offered,  to 
FIGHT  A  MAIN  OF  COCKS,  at  any  place 
that  may  be  agreed  upon  by  the  parties — to  be 
fought  the  ensuing  spring.        Gideon  Alston. 

Chatham  county,  June  7,  1838." 

Two  weeks  after,  this  challenge  was  answered 
as  follows  : 

"  TO  MR.  GIDEON  ALSTON,  of  Chatham 
county,  N.  C. 

"  Sir  :  In  looking  over  the  North  Carolina 
Standard  of  the  20th  inst.  I  discover  a  challenge 
over  your  signature,  headed  '  Chatham  against 
Na«h,'  in  which  you  state  that  you  are  '  author- 


ized to  take  a  bet  of  any  amount  that  may  be  of- 
fered, to  fight  a  main  of  cocks,  at  any  place  tli:U 
may  be  agreed  upon  by  the  parties,  to  be  fought 
the  ensuing  spring,'  which  challenfre  I  accept  : 
and  do  propose  to  meet  you  at  Rolesville,  in 
W  ake  county,  IS.  C.  on  the  last  Wc dnesday  in 
May  next,  the  parties  to  show  thirty -one  cocks 
each  — fight  four  days,  and  be  governed  by  the 
rules  as  laid  down  in  Turner's  Cock  Laws — 
which,  if  you  think  proper  to  accede  to,  you  will 
signify  through  this  or  any  other  medium  you  may 
select,  and  then  I  will  name  the  sum  for  which 
we  shall  fight,  as  that  privilege  was  surrendered 
by  you  in  your  challenge. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  &c. 
Nicholas  W.  Arrington,, 

near  Hilliardston,  Nash  co. 
North  Carolina 
June  22nd,  1838." 

The  following  advertisement  in  the  RichmonU 
Whig,  of  July  12,  1837,  exhibits  the  pubhc  senti- 
ment of  Virginia. 

"  MAIN  OF  COCKS.— A  large  '  MAIN  OF 
COCKS,'  Sn  a  side,  for  ,§25  '  the  fight,'  and 
^500  'the  odd,'  will  be  fought  betveen  the 
County  of  Dinwiddle  on  one  part,  and  the  Coun- 
ties of  Hanover  and  Henrico  on  the  other. 

"  The  '  re;^ular'  fightuig  will  be  continued 
three  days,  and  from  the  large  number  of  '  game 
uns'  on  both  sides  and  in  the  adjacent  country, 
will  be  prolonged  no  doubt  a.  fourth.  To  prevent 
confusion  and  promote  '  sport,'  tire  Pit  will  be  en- 
closed and  furnislicd  with  seats ;  so  that  those 
having  a  curiosity  to  witness  a  species  of  diver- 
sion originating  in  a  better  day  (for  they  had  no 
rag  money  then,)  can  have  that  very  natural  feel- 
ing gratified. 

"  mr  The  Petersburg  Constellation  is  requested 
to  copy." 

Horse-racing  too,  as  every  body  knows,  is  a  fa- 
vorite amusement  of  slaveholders.  Every  slave 
state  has  its  race  course,  and  in  the  elder  states 
almost  every  county  has  one  on  a  small  scale. 
There  is  hardly  a  day  in  the  year,  the  weather 
permitting,  in  which  crowds  do  not  assemble  at 
the  south  to  witness  this  barbarous  sport.  Hor- 
rible cruelty  is  absolutely  inseparable  from  it. 
Hardly  a  race  occurs  of  any  celebrity  in  whicli 
some  one  of  the  coursers  arc  not  lamed,  '  broken 
down,'  or  in  some  v>'ay  seriously  injured,  often  for 
life,  and  not  unfrequently  they  are  killed  by  the 
rupture  of  some  vital  part  in  the  struggle.  When 
the  heats  are  closely  contested,  the  blood  of  the 
tortured  animal  drips  from  the  lash  and  flies  at 
every  le^p  from  the  stroke  of  the  rowel.  From 
the  breaking  of  girths  and  other  accidents,  their 
riders  (mostly  slaves)  are  often  thrown  and  maimed 
or  killed.  Yet  these  amusements  arc  attended  by 
thousands  in  every  part  of  the  slave  states.  The 
wealth  and  fashion,  the  gentlemen  and  ladies  of 
the  '  highest  circles'  at  the  south,  throng  the  race 
course. 

That  those  who  can  fasten  steel  spurs  upon  the 
legs  of  dunghill  fowls,  and  goad  th.e  poor  birds  to 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


187 


worry  and  tear  each  other  to  death — and 
tliose  who  can  crowd  by  thousands  to 
witness  such  barbarity — that  those  who  can 
throng  the  race-course  and  with  keen  relish  wit. 
ncss  the  hot  pantings  of  tlie  hfe-struggie,  the 
lacerations  and  fitful  spasms  of  the  muscles,  swel- 
ling through  the  crimsoned  foam,  as  the  tortured 
steeds  rush  in  blooJ-welterings  to  the  goal — that 
such  should  loolv  upoa  the  sufferings  of  their 
slaves  with  indifference  is  certainly  small  wonder. 

Perhaps  wo  shall  be  told  that  there  are  throng- 
ed racL'-courses  at  the  North.  True,  there  are  a 
(cw,  and  they  are  thronged  chiefly  by  Southerners, 
and  '  Northern  men  with  Southern  principles,'  and 
supported  mainly  by  the  patronage  of  slave- 
holders who  summer  at  the  North.  Cock-fight, 
ing  and  horse-racing  are  "  Southern  institutions." 
Tiie  idleness,  contempt  of  labor,  dissipation,  sen- 
suality, brutality,  cruelty,  and  meanness,  engen- 
dered by  the  habit  of  making  men  and  women 
work  without  pay,  and  flogging  them  if  they  de- 
mur at  it,  constitutes  a  congenial  soil  out  of 
wliich  cock-fighting  and  horse-racing  are  the 
Spontaneous  growth. 

Again, — The  kind  treatment  of  the  slaves  is 
often  argued  from  the  liberal  education  and  en- 
larged views  of  slaveholders.  The  facts  and  rea- 
sonings of  the  preceding  pages  have  shown,  that 
'  liberal  education,'  despotic  habits  and  ungovern. 
ed  passions  work  together  with  sliglit  friction. 
And  every  day's  oHservation  shows  that  the  form, 
er  is  often  a  stimulant  to  the  latter. 

But  the  notion  so  common  at  the  north  that 
the  majority  of  the  slaveholders  are  persons  of 
education,  is  entirely  erroneous.  A  very  few 
slaveholders  in  each  of  the  slave  states  have  been 
men  oi  ripe  education,  to  whom  our  national  lite- 
rature is  much  indebted.  A  larger  number  may 
be  called  well  educated — these  reside  mostly  in 
the  cities  and  large  villages,  but  a  majority  of  the 
slaveholders  are  ignorant  men,  thousands  of  them 
notoriously  so,  mere  boors  unable  to  write  their 
names  or  to  read  the  alphabet. 

No  one  of  the  slave  states  has  probably  so  much 
general  education  as  Virginia.  It  is  the  oldest  of 
them — lias  furnished  one  half  of  the  presidents  of 
(he  United  States — has  expended  more  upon  her 
university  than  any  state  in  tlie  Union  has  done 
during  the  same  time  upon  its  colleges — sent  to 
Europe  nearly  twenty  years  since  for  her  most 
learned  professors,  and  in  fine,  has  far  surpassed 
every  other  slave  state  in  her  efforts  to  disseminate 
education  among  her  citizens,  and  yet,  the  Gov- 
emor  of  Virginia  in  his  message  to  the  legislature 
(Jan.  7,  1839)  says,  that  of  four  thousand  six  hun. 
dred  and  fourteen  adult  males  in  that  state,  who 
applied  to  the  county  clerks  for  marriage  licenses 
in  the  year  1837,  '  one  thousand  and  forty- 
8EVEN  were  unable  to  write  their  names.'     The 


governor  adds,  *  These  statements,  it  will  be  re- 
membered,  arc  confined  to  one  sex  :  the  education 
of  females,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  in  a'condition  of 
much  greater  neglect.' 

The  Editor  of  the  Virginia  Times,  published  at 
Wheeling,  in  his  paper  of  Jan.  23,  1839,' says, — 

"  We  have  every  reason  to  suppose  that  one- 
fourth  of  the  people  of  the  state  cannot  WTite 
their  names,  and  they  have  not,  of  course,  any 
other  species  of  education." 

Kentucky  is  the  child  of  Virginia  ;  her  first  set- 
tiers  were  some  of  the  most  distinguished  citizens 
of  the  mother  state ;  in  the  general  diffusion  of  in- 
telligence amongst  her  citizens  Kentucky  is  pro* 
bably  in  advance  of  all  the  slave  states  except 
Virginia  and  South  Carolina;  and  yet  Governor 
Clark,  in  his  last  message  to  the  Kentucky  Legis- 
lature, (Dec  5,  1838)  makes  the  following  declara- 
tion :  '  From  the  computation  of  those  most  fa- 
miliar with  the  subject,  it  appears  that  at  least 

ONE  THIRD  OF  THE  ADULT  POPULATION  OF  THE  STATE 
ARE  UNABLE  TO  WRITE  THEIR  NAMES.' 

The  following  advertisement  in  the  "  Milledge- 
ville  (Geo.)  Journal,"  Dec.  26,  1837,  is  another 
specimen  from  one  of  the  '  old  thirteen.' 

"  Notice. — I,  Pleasant  Webb,  of  the  State  of 
Georgia,  Oglethorpe  county,  being  an  illiterate 
man,  and  not  able  to  write  my  own  name,  and 
whereas  it  hath  been  represented  to  me  that  there 
is  a  certain  promissory  note  or  notes  out  against 
me  that  I  know  nothing  of,  and  further  that  some 
man  in  this  State  holds  a  bil'  of  sale  for  a  certain 
negro  woman  named  Ailsey  and  her  increase,  a 
part  of  which  is  now  in  my  possession,  which  I 
also  know  nothing  of.  Now  I  do  hereby  certify 
and  declare,  that  I  have  no  knowledge  whatsoev- 
er of  any  such  papers  existing  in  my  name  as 
above  stated  and  I  hereby  require  all  or  any  per. 
son  or  persons  whatsoever  holding  or  pretendinor 
to  hold  any  such  papers,  to  produce  them  to  me 
within  thirty  days  from  the  date  hereof,  shewing 
their  authority  for  holding  the  same,  or  they  will 
be  considered  fictitious  and  fraudulently  obtained 
or  raised,  by  some  person  or  persons  for  base  pur. 
poses  after  my  death. 

"  Given  under  my  hand  this  2nd  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1837.  his 

"PLEASANT  X  WEBB, 
mark 
Finally,  that  slaves  must  habitually  suffek 

great  cruelties,  follows  inevitably  from  the 

brutal  outrages  which  their  masters  inflict 

on  each  other. 

Slaveholders,  exercising  from  childhood  irrespon- 
sible power  over  human  beings,  and  in  the  language 
of  President  Jefferson,  "  giving  loose  to  the  worst  of 
passions"  in  the  treatment  of  their  slaves,  become 
in  a  great  measure  unfitted  for  self  control  in  their  in- 
tercourse with  each  other.  Tempers  accustomed  to 
riot  with  loose  reins,  spurn  restraints,  and  passions 
inflamed  by  indulgence,  take  fire  on  the  least  friction. 
We  repeat  it,  the  state  of  society  in  the  slave  states, 
the  duels,  and  daily  deadly  affrays  of  slaveholders 


18S 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opin'ion. 


with  each  other — the  fact  that  the  most  dcHbcrate  and 
cold-blooded  murders  arc  committed  at  noon  day, 
in  the  presence  of  thousands,  and  the  perpetrators 
eulogized  Ijy  the  community  as  "honorable  men," 
reveals  such  a  prostration  of  law,  as  gives  impunity 
to  crime — a  state  of  society,  an  omnipresent  public 
sentiment  reckless  of  human  life,  taking  bloody 
vengeance  on  the  spot  for  every  imaginary  affront, 
glorying  in  such  assassinations  as  the  only  true  honor 
and  chivalry,  succcssfidly  defying  the  civil  arm,  and 
laughing  its  impotency  to  scorn. 

When  such  things  are  done  in  the  green  tree, 
what  will  be  done  in  the  dry  ?  When  slaveholders 
are  in  the  habit  of  caning,  stabbing,  and  shooting 
each  other  at  every  supposed  insult,  the  unspeaka- 
ble enormities  perpetrated  by  such  men,  with  such 
passions,  upon  their  defenceless  slaves,  must  be 
beyond  computation.  To  furnish  the  reader  with 
an  illustration  of  slaveholding  civilization  and  mo- 
rahty,  as  exhibited  in  the  unbridled  fury,  rage,  ma- 
lignant hate,  jealousy,  diabolical  revenge,  and  all 
those  infernal  passions  that  shoot  up  rank  in  the 
hot-bed  of  arbitrary  power,  we  will  insert  here  a 
mass  of  testimony,  detailing  a  large  number  of  af- 
frays, lynchings,  assassinations,  &c.,  &c.,  which 
have  taken  place  in  various  parts  of  the  slave  states 
within  a  brief  period — and  to  leave  no  room  fur 
cavil  on  the  subject,  these  extracts  will  be  made 
exclusively  from  newspapers  published  in  the  slave 
states,  and  generally  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  tragedies  described.  They  will  not  be  made 
second  hand  from  northern  papers,  but  from  the  ori- 
ginal southern  papers,  which , now  lie  on  our  table. 

Before  proceeding  to  furnish  details  of  certain 
classes  of  crimes  in  the  slave  states,  we  advertise 
the  reader — 1st.  That  we  shall  not  include  in  the 
list  those  crimes  which  are  ordinarily  committed  in 
the  free,  as  well  as  in  the  slave  states.  2d.  We 
shall  not  include  anv  of  the  crimes  perpetrated  by 


whites  upon  slaves  and  free  colored  persons,  who 
constitute  a  majority  of  the  population  in  Missis, 
sippi  and  Louisiana,  a  large  majority  in  South  Caro- 
lina,  and,  on  an  average,  two-fifths  in  the  other 
slave  states.  3d.  Fist  fights,  canings,  beatings, 
biting  off  noses  and  ears,  gougings,  knockings 
down,  &c.,  unless  they  result  in  death,  will  not  be 
included  in  the  list,  nor  will  ordinary  murders,  un- 
less connected  with  circumstances  that  serve  as  a 
special  index  of  public  sentiment.  4th  Neither 
will  ordinary,  forrnal  duels  be  included,  except  in 
such  cases  as  just  specified.  5th.  The  only  crimes 
which,  as  the  general  rule,  will  be  specified,  will  be 
deadly  affrays  with  bowie  knives,  dirks,  pistols, 
rifles,  guns,  or  other  death  weapons,  and  lynch, 
ivgs.  6th.  The  crimes  enumerated  will,  for  the 
most  part,  be  only  those  perpetrated  openly,  without 
attempt  at  concealment.  7th.  We  shall  not  at- 
tempt  to  give  a  full  list  of  the  affrays,  &,c.,  that  took 
place  in  the  respective  states  during  the  period  sc. 
lected,  as  the  only  files  of  southern  papers  to  which 
we  have  access  are  very  imperfect. 

The  reader  will  perceive,  from  these  prelimina- 
lies,  that  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  crimes  ac- 
tually perpetrated  in  the  respective  slave  states 
during  the  period  selected,  will  be  entered  upon 
this  list.  He  will  also  perceive,  that  the  crimes 
which  will  be  presented  arc  of  a  class  rarely  perpe- 
trated in  the  free  states ;  and  if  perpetrated  there 
at  all,  they  are,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  com- 
mitted either  by  slaveholders,  temporarily  resident 
in  them,  or  by  persons  whose  passions  have  been 
inflamed  by  the  poison  of  a  southern  contact — whose 
habits  and  characters  have  become  perverted  by 
hving  among  slaveholders,  and  adopting  the  code 
of  slaveholding  morality. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  details,  commencing 
with  the  new  state  of  Arkansas. 


ARKANSAS. 


At  the  last  session  of  the  legislature  of  that  state, 
Col.  .Tohn  Wilson,  President  of  the  Bank  at  Little 
Rock,  the  capital  of  the  state,  was  elected  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  had  been 
elected  to  that  office  for  a  number  of  years  succes- 
sively, end  was  one  of  the  most  influential  citizens 
of  the  state.  While  presiding  over  the  delibera- 
tions of  the  House,  he  took  umbrage  at  words  spo- 
ken in  debate  by  Major  Anthony,  a  conspicuous 
member,  came  down  from  the  Speaker's  chair, 
drew  a  large  bowie  knife  from  his  bosom,  and  at- 
tacked Major  A.,  who  defended  himself  for  some 
time,  but  was  at  last  stabbed  through  the  heart, 
and  fell  dead  on  the  floor.  Wilson  deliberately 
■wiped  the  blood  from  his  knife,  and  returned  to  his 
seat.  The  following  statement  of  the  circumstances 
of  the  murder,  and  the  trial  of  the  murderer,  is 
abridged  from  the  account  published  in  the  Arkan- 


sas Gazette,  a  few  months  since — it  is  here  taken 
from  the  Knoxville  (Tennessee)  Register,  July  4. 
1838. 

"  On  the  14th  of  December  last,  Maj.  Joseph  J. 
Anthony,  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Arkan 
sas,  was  murdered,  while  performing  his  duty  as  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  John 
Wilson,  Speaker  of  that  House. 

The  facts  were  these  :  A  bill  came  from  the  Se- 
nate, commonly  called  the  Wolf  Bill.  Among  the 
amendments  proposed,  was  one  by  Maj.  Anthony, 
that  the  signature  of  the  President  of  the  Real  Es 
tate  Bank  should  be  attached  to  the  certificate  of 
the  wolf  scalp.  Col.  Wilson,  the  Speaker,  asked 
Mnj.  Anthony  whether  he  intended  the  remark  as 
personal.  Maj.  Anthony  promptly  said,  '' No,  1 
do  not."  And  at  that  instant  of  time,  a  message 
was  delivered  from  the  Senate,  which  suspended 
the  proceedings  of  the  House  for  a  few  minutes. 
Immediately  after  the  messenger  from  the  Senate 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


189 


had  retired,  Maj.  Anthony  rose  from  his  seat,  and 
said  he  wished  to  explain,  that  he  did  not  intend  to 
insuk  the  Speaker  or  the  House  ;  when  Wilson,  in- 
terrupting, peremptorily  ordered  him  to  take  his 
seat.  Maj.  Anthony  said,  as  a  member,  he  had  a 
right  to  the  floor,  to  explain  himself.  Wilson  said, 
in  an  angry  tone,  '  Sit  down,  or  you  had  better  ;' 
and  thrust  his  hand  into  his  bosom,  and  drew  out  a 
large  bowie  knife,  10  or  11  inches  in  length,  and 
descended  from  the  Speaker's  chair  to  the  floor, 
with  the  knife  drawn  in  a  menacing  manner.  Maj. 
Anthony,  seeing  the  danger  he  was  placed  in,  by 
Wilson's  advance  on  him  with  a  drawn  knife,  rose 
from  his  chair,  set  it  out  of  his  way,  stepped  back 
a  pace  or  two,  and  drew  his  knife.  Wilson  caught 
up  a  chair,  and  struck  Anthony  with  it.  Anthony, 
recovering  from  the  blow,  caught  the  chair  in  his 
left  hand,  and  a  fight  ensued  over  the  chair.  Wil- 
son received  two  \\-ounds,  one  on  each  arm,  and 
Anthony  lost  his  knife,  cither  by  throwing  it  at 
Wilson,  or  it  escaped  by  accident.  After  Anthony 
had  lost  his  knife,  Wilson  advanced  on  Anthony, 
who  was  then  retreating,  looking  over  his  shoulder. 
Seeing  Wilson  pursuing  him,  he  threw  a  chair. 
Wilson  still  pursued,  and  Anthony  raised  another 
chair  as  high  as  his  breast,  with  a  view,  it  is  sup. 
posed,  of  keeping  Wilson  off.  Wilson  then  caught 
hold  of  the  chair  with  his  left  hand,  raised  it  up, 
and  with  his  right  hand  deliberately  thrust  the  knife, 
up  to  the  hilt,  into  Anthony's  heart,  and  as  deliber- 
ately drew  it  cut,  and  wiping  ofl'  the  blood  with  his 
thumb  and  finger,  retired  near  to  the  Speaker's 
chair. 

"  As  the  knife  was  withdrawn  from  Anthony's 
heart,  he  fell  a  lifeless  corpse  on  the  floor,  without 
uttering  a  word,  or  scarcely  making  a  struggle  ;  so 
true  did  the  knife,  as  dehberately  directed,  pierce 
his  heart. 

'•Three  days  elapsed  before  the  constituted  au- 
thorities took  any  notice  of  this  horrible  deed  ;  and 
not  then,  until  a  relation  of  the  murdered  Anthony 
had  demanded  a  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of 
Wilson.  Several  days  then  elapsed  before  he  was 
brought  before  an  examining  court.  He  then,  in  a 
carriage  and  four,  came  to  the  place  appointed  for 
his  trial.  Four  or  five  days  were  employed  in  the 
examination  of  witnesses,  and  never  was  a  clearer 
case  of  murder  proved  than  on  that  occasion.  Not- 
withstanding, the  court  (Justice  Brown  dissenting) 
admitted  Wilson  to  bail,  and  positively  refused 
that  the  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  state  should 
introduce  the  law,  to  show  that  it  was  not  a  bail, 
able  case,  or  even  to  hear  an  argument  from  hiin. 

"  At  the  time  appointed  for  the  session  of  the  Cir- 
cuit Court,  Wilson  appeared  agreeably  to  his  re- 
cognizance. A  motion  was  made  by  Wilson's 
counsel  for  change  of  venue,  founded  on  the  afli- 
davits  of  Wilson,  and  tv/o  otiier  men.  The  court 
thereupon  removed  the  case  to  Saline  county,  and 
ordered  the  Sheriff  to  take  Wilson  into  custody,  and 
deliver  him  over  to  the  Sheriff  of  Saline  county. 

"The  Sheriff  of  Pulaski  never  confined  Wilson 
one  minute,  but  permitted  him  to  go  where  he  pleas- 
ed, without  a  guard,  or  any  restraint  imposed  on 
him  whatever.  On  his  way  to  Saline,  he  entertain- 
ed him  freely  at  his  own  house,  and  the  next  day 
delivered  him  over  to  the  Sheriff  of  that  county, 
who  conducted  the  prisoner  to  the  debtor's  room  in 
the  Jail,  and  gave  biin  tht  key,  so  that  he  and  every 


body  else  had  free  egress  and  ingress  at  all  times. 
Wilson  invited  every  body  to  call  on  him,  as  he 
wished  to  see  his  friends,  and  his  room  was  crowd, 
ed  with  visitors,  who  called  to  drink  grog,  and  laugh 
and  talk  with  him.  But  this  theatre  was  not  suffi- 
ciently large  for  his  purpose.  He  afterwards  visit- 
ed the  dram-shops,  where  he  freely  treated  all  that 
would  partake  with  him,  and  went  fishing  and 
hunting  with  others  at  pleasure,  and  entirely  with 
otit  restraint.  He  also  ate  at  the  same  table  with 
the  .Judge,  while  on  trial. 

"  When  the  court  met  at  Saline,  Wilson  was  put 
on  his  trial.  Several  days  were  occupied  in  exam- 
ining the  witnesses  in  the  case.  After  the  exam- 
ination was  closed,  while  Col.  Taylor  was  engaged 
in  a  very  able,  lucid,  and  argumentative  speech,  on 
the  part  of  the  prosecution,  some  man  collected  a 
parcel  of  the  rabble,  and  came  within  a  few  yards 
of  the  court-house  door,  and  bawled  in  a  loud  voice, 
'  part  them — part  them  !'  Every  body  supposed 
there  was  an  affray,  and  ran  to  the  doors  and  win- 
dows to  see ;  behold,  there  was  nothing  more  than 
the  man,  and  the  rabble  he  had  collected  around 
him,  for  the  purpose  of  annoying  Col.  Taylor  while 
speaking.  A  few  minutes  aftervv'ards,  this  same 
person  brought  a  horse  near  the  court-house  door, 
and  commenced  crying  the  horse,  as  though  he  was 
for  sale,  and  continued  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  to 
ride  before  the  court-house  door,  crying  the  horse, 
in  a  loud  and  boisterous  tone  of  voice.  The  Judge 
OTt  as  a  silent  listener  to  the  indignity  thus  offered 
the  court  and  counsel  by  this  man,  without  inter- 
posing his  authority. 

"  To  show  the  depravity  of  the  times,  and  the  peo- 
ple, after  the  verdict  had  been  delivered  by  the  jury, 
and  the  court  informed  Wilson  that  he  was  dis- 
charged, there  was  a  rush  toward  him  :  some  seized 
him  by  the  hand,  some  by  the  arm,  and  there  was 
great  and  loud  rejoicing  and  exultation,  directly  in 
the  presence  of  the  court :  and  Wilson  told  the 
Sherilfto  take  the  jury  to  a  grocery,  that  he  might 
treat  them,  and  invited  every  body  that  chose  to  go. 
The  house  was  soon  filled  to  overflowing.  The 
rejoicing  was  kept  up  till  near  supper  time  :  but  to 
cap  the  climax,  soon  after  supper  was  over,  a  ma- 
jority of  the  jury,  together  with  many  others,  went 
to  the  rooms  that  had  been  occupied  several  days 
by  the  friend  and  relation  of  the  murdered  Antho- 
ny, and  commenced  a  scene  of  the  most  ridiculous 
dancing,  (as  it  is  believed,)  in  triumph  for  Wilson, 
and  as  a  triumph  over  the  feelings  of  the  relations 
of  the  departed  Anthony.  The  scene  did  not  close 
here.  The  party  retired  to  a  dram-shop,  and  con- 
tinned  their  rejoicing  until  about  half  after  10 
o'clock.  They  then  collected  a  parcel  of  horns, 
trumpets,  &c.,  and  marched  through  the  streets, 
blowing  them,  till  near  day,  when  one  of  the  com- 
pany rode  his  horse  in  the  porch  adjoining  the 
room  which  was  occupied  by  the  relations  of  the  de- 
ceased." 

This  case  is  given  to  the  reader  at  length,  in  or- 
der fully  to  show,  that  in  a  community  where  the 
law  sanctions  the  commission  of  every  species  of 
outrage  upon  one  class  of  citizens,  it  fosters  pas- 
ions  which  will  paralvze  its  power  to  protect  the 
other  classes.  Look  at  the  facts  developed  in  this 
case,  as  exhibiting  the  state  of  society  among  slave- 
holders.    1st.  That  the  members  of  the  legislature 


190 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


are  in  the  habit  of  wearing  bowie  knives.  Wil- 
son's knife  was  10  or  11  inches  long.*  2d.  The 
murderer,  Wilson,  was  a  man  of  wealth,  president 
of  the  bank  at  the  capital  of  the  state,  a  high  niili. 
tary  officer,  and  had,  for  many  years,  been  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  as  appears  from 
a  previous  statement  in  the  Arkansas  Gazette.  3d. 
The  murder  was  committed  in  open  day,  before  all 
the  members  of  the  House,  and  many  spectators, 
not  one  of  whom  seems  to  have  made  the  least 
atteuipt  to  intercept  Wilson,  as  he  advanced  upon 
Anthony  \\iith  his  knife  drawn,  but  "  made  way  for 
iiim,"  as  is  stated  in  another  account.  4th.  Though 
the  murder  was  committed  in  the  state-house,  at 
the  capital  of  the  state,  days  passed  before  the  civil 
authorities  moved  in  the  matter ;  and  they  did  not 
finally  do  it,  until  the  relations  of  the  murdered 
man  demanded  a  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of 
the  murderer.  Even  then,  several  days  elapsed 
before  he  was  brought  before  an  examining  court. 
When  his  trial  came  on,  he  drove  to  it  in  state,  drew 
up  before  the  door  with  "his  coach  and  four," 
alighted,  and  strided  into  court  like  a  lord  among 
his  vassals  ;  and  there,  though  a  clearer  case  of  de- 
liberate murder  never  reeked  in  the  face  of  the  sun, 
yet  he  was  admitted  to  bail,  the  court  absolutely, 
refusing  to  hear  an  argument  from  the  prosecuting 
attorney,  showing  that  it  was  not  a  bailable  case. 
5th.  The  sheriff  of  Pulaski  county,  wfho  had  Wil- 
son in  custody,  "  never  confined  him  a  moment, 
but  permitted  him  to  go  at  large  wholly  unrestrain- 
ed." When  transferred  to  Saline  co.  for  trial,  the 
sheriff  of  that  county  gave  Wilson  the  same  liberty, 
and  he  spent  his  time  in  parties  of  pleasure,  fish- 
ing, hunting,  and  at  houses  of  entertainment.  6th. 
Finally,  to  demonstrate  to  the  world,  that  justice 
among  slaveholders  is  consistent  with  itself;  that 
authorizing  man-stealing  and  patronising  robbery, 
It  will,  of  course,  be  the  patron  and  associate  of 
murder  also,  the  judge  who  sat  upon  the  case,  and 
the  murderer  who  was  on  trial  for  his  life  before 
him,  were  boon-companions  together,  eating  and 
drinking  at  the  same  table  throughout  the  trial. 
Then  came  the  conclusion  of  the  farce — the  up- 
roar round  the  court-house  during  the  trial,  drown- 
ing the  voice  of  the  prosecutor  while  pleading, 
without  the  least  attempt  by  the  court  to  put  it 
down — then  the  charge  of  the  judge  to  the  jury, 
and  their  unanimous  verdict  of  acquittal — then  the 
rush  from  all  quarters  around  the  murderer  with 
congratulations — the  whole  crowd  in  the  court 
room  shouting  and  cheering — then  Wilson  leading 
the  way  to  a  tavern,  inviting  the  sheriff,  and  jury, 
and  all  present  to  "  a  treat" — then  the  bacchanalian 
revelry  kept  up  all  night,  a  majority  of  the  jurors 

♦  A  correspondent  of  the  "  Frederick  Herald,"  writing 
from  Little  Rock,  says,  "Anthony's  knife  was  about 
fuDi'Tilij-eight  indies  in  length.  They  all  carry  knives 
here,  or  pistols.  There  are  several  kinds  of  knives  in 
use— a  narrow  blade,  and  about  twelve  inches  long,  is 
tailed  an   "  Arkansas  looth-pick." 


participating — the  dancing,  the  triumphal  proces 
sion  through  the  streets  with  the  blowing  of  horns 
and  trumpets,  and  the  prancing  of  horses  through 
the  porch  of  the  house  occupied  by  the  relations 
of  the  murdered  Anthony,  adding  insidt  and  mock, 
ery  to  their  agony. 

A  few  months  before  this  murder  on  the  floor  of 
the  legislature,  George  Scott,  Esq.,  formerly  mar- 
shal of  the  state  was  shot  in  an  affray  at  Van  Bu- 
ren,  Crawford  co.,  Arkansas,  by  a  man  named 
Walker;  and  Robert  Carothers,  in  an  affray  in  St. 
Francis  co.,  shot  William  Rachel,  juat  as  Rachel 
was  shooting  at  Carothers'  father.  (Nalional  Intel, 
ligencer,  May  8,  1837,  and  Little  Hock  Gazette, 
August  30, 1837.) 

While  Wilson's  trial  was  in  progress,  Mr.  .Ga- 
briel Sibley  was  stabbed  to  the  heart  at  a  public 
dinner,  in  St.  Francis  co.,  Arkansas,  by  James  W 
Grant.     {Arkansas  Gazette,  May  30,  1838.) 

Hardly  a  week  before  this,  the  following  oc 
curred  : 

"  On  the  16th  ult.,  an  encounter  took  place  at 
Little  Rock,  Ark.,  between  David  F.  Douglass,  a 
young  man  of  18  or  19,  and  Dr.  Wm.  C.  Howell. 
A  shot  was  exchanged  between  them  at  the  dis- 
tance of  8  or  10  feet  with  double-barrelled  guns. 
The  load  of  Douglass  entered  the  left  hip  of  Dr. 
Howell,  and  a  buckshot  from  the  gun  of  the  latter 
struck  a  negro  girl,  13  or  14  years  of  age,  just  be- 
low the  pit  of  the  stomach.  Douglass  then  fired 
a  second  time  and  hit  Howell  in  the  left  groin, 
penetrating  the  abdomen  and  bladder,  and  causing 
his  death  in  four  hours.  The  negro  girl,  at  the 
last  dates,  was  not  dead,  but  no  hopes  were  enter- 
tained of  her  recovery.  Douglass  was  committed 
to  await  his  trial  at  the  April  term  of  the  Circuit 
Court." — Louisville  Journal. 

"  The  Little  Rock  Gazette  of  Oct.  24,  says, 
"  We  are  again  called  upon  to  record  the  cold 
blooded  murder  of  a  valuable  citizen.  On  the 
10th  instant.  Col.  .John  Lasater,  of  Frankhn  co., 
was  murdered  by  John  W.  Whiison,  who  delibe- 
rately shot  him  with  a  shot  gun,  loaded  with  a 
handful  of  rifle  balls,  six  of  wliich  entered  his 
body.     He  lived  twelve  hours  after  he  was  shot. 

"  Whitson  is  the  son  of  William  Whitson,  who 
was  unfortunately  killed,  about  a  year  since,  in  a 
rencontre  with  Col.  Lasater,  (who  was  fully  exone- 
rated  from  all  blame  by  a  jury,)  and,  in  revenge  of 
his  fatlier's  death,  committed  this  bloody  deed." 

These  atrocities  were  all  perpetrated  within  a 
few  months  of  the  time  of  the  deliberate  assassi- 
nation, on  the  floor  of  the  legislature  by  the 
speaker,  already  described,  and  are  probably  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  outrages  conmiitted  in  that 
state  during  the  same  period.  The  state  of  Ar- 
kansas contains  about  forty-five  thousand  white 
inhabitants,  which  is,  if  we  mistake  not,  the  pre- 
sent population  of  Litchfield  county,  Connecticut 
And  we  venture  the  assertion,  that  a  public  affray, 
with  deadly  weapons,  has  not  taken  place  in  that 
county  for  fifty  years,  if  indeed  ever  since  its  settle 
ment,  a  century  and  a  half  ago. 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


191 


MISSOURI. 


Missouri  became  one  of  the  United  States  in  1821. 
Its  present  white  population  is  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand.  The  following  are  a  few  of 
the  affrays  that  have  occurred  there  during  the 
years  1837  and  '38, 

The  "Salt  River  Journal,"  March  8,  1838,  has 
the  following. 

•■'■Fatal  Affray. — An  affray  took  place  during 
last  week,  in  the  town  of  New  London,  between 
Dr.  Peake  and  Dr.  Boslcy,  both  of  that  village, 
growing  out  of  some  trivial  matter  at  a  card  party. 
Ahiiv  some  words,  Bosley  threw  a  glass  at  Peake, 
which  was  followed  up  by  other  acts  of  viuk  ncc, 
and  in  the  quarrel  Pealie  stabbed  Bosley,  several 
limes  with  a  dirk,  in  consequence  of  which,  Bos- 
ley died  the  following  morning.  The  court  of 
inquiry  considered  Peake  justifiable,  and  dis- 
charged him  from  arrest." 

From  tlie  "  St.  Louis  Republican,"  of  September 
29,  1837. 

"W«  learn  that  a  fight  occurred  at  Bowling. 
Green,  in  this  state,  a  few  days  since,  between  Dr. 
Michael  Reynolds  and  Henry  Lalor.  Lalor  pro- 
cured a  gun,  and  Mr.  Dickerson  wrested  the  gun 
from  him  ;  this  produced  a  fight  between  Lalor 
and  Dickerson,  in  which  the  former  stabbed  the 
latter  in  the  abdomen.  Mr.  Dickerson  died  of  the 
wound." 

The  following  was  in  the  same  paper  aboat  a 
month  previous,  August  21,  1837. 

"  ^-1  Horse  Thief  Shot. — A  thief  was  caught  in 
the  act  of  stealing  a  horse  on  Friday  last,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river,  by  a  company  of  persons 
out  sporting.  Mr.  Kremer,  who  was  in  the  com- 
pany, levelled  his  rifle  and  ordered  him  to  stop  ; 
which  he  refused  ;  he  then  tired  and  lodged  the 
contents  in  the  thief's  body,  of  which  he  died  soon 
afterwards.  Mr.  K.  went  before  a  magistrate,  who 
after  hearing  the  case,  refused  to  hold  him  for 

FURTHER    TRIAL  I" 

On  the  5th  of  .July,  1833,  Alpha  P.  Buckley  mur- 
dered William  Yaochum  in  an  affray  in  Jackson 
county,  Missouri.  (Missouri  Republican,  Julv  24, 
1S3S.) 

General  Atkinson  of  the  United  States  Army 
was  waylaid  on  the  4th  of  September,  1838,  by  a 
number  of  persons,  and  attacked  in  his  carriage 
near  St.  Louis,  on  the  road  to  Jefferson  Barracks, 
but  escaped  after  shooting  one  of  the  assailants. 
The  New  Orleans  True  American  of  October  29, 
'38,  speaking  of  this  says  :  "  It  will  be  recollected 
that  a  few  weeks  ago.  Judge  Dougherty,  one  of  the 
most  respectable  citizens  of  St.  Lcuis,  was  mur- 
dered upon  the  same  road." 

The  same  paper  contains  the  following  letter 
from  the  murderer  of  Judge  Dougherty. 

"  Murder  of  Judge  Dougherty. — The  St.  Louis 
Repubhcan  received  the  following  mysterious 
(letter,  unsealed,  regarding  this  brutal  murder :" — 


"  Natchez,  Miss.,  Sept.  24. 
"  Messrs.  Editors  : — Revenge  is  sweet.  On  the 
night  of  the  11th,  12th,  and  13th,  I  made  prepara- 
tions, and  did,  on  the  14th  July  kill  a  rascal,  and 
only  regret  that  I  have  not  the  privilege  of  telling 
the  circumstance.  I  have  so  placed  it  that  I  can 
never  be  identified  ;  and  further,  1  have  no  com. 
punctions  of  conscience  for  the  death  of  Thomas 
M.  Dougherty." 

But  instead  of  presenting  individual  affrays  and 
single  atrocities,  hov.ever  numerous,  (and  the  Mis- 
souri papers  abound  with  them,)  in  order  to  exhibit 
the  true  state  of  society  there,  we  refer  to  the  fact 
now  universally  notorious,  that  for  months  during 
the  last  fall  and  winter,  some  hundreds  of  inoffen. 
sive  Mormons,  occupying  a  considerable  tract  of 
land,  and  a  flourishing  village  in  the  interior  of  the 
state,  have  suffered  every  species  of  inhuman 
outrage  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding 
counties — that  for  weeks  together,  mobs  consisting 
of  hundreds  and  thousands,  kept  them  in  a  state  of 
constant  siege,  laying  waste  their  lands,  destroying 
their  cattle  and  provisions,  tearing  down  their 
houses,  ravishing  the  females,  seizing  and  dragging 
off  and  killing  the  men.  Not  one  of  the  thousands 
engaged  in  these  horrible  outrages  and  butcherings 
has,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  been  indicted.  The 
following  extract:  of  a  letter  from  a  military  officer 
of  one  of  the  brigades  ordered  out  b}'  the  Governor 
of  Missouri,  to  terminate  the  matter,  is  taken  from 
the  North  Alabamian  of  December  22,  1838. 

Correspondence  of  the  Nashville  Whig. 
THE  MORMON  WAR. 

"  MiLLERSEURG,  Mo.  November  8. 

"  Dear  Sir — A  lawless  mob  had  organized 
themselves  for  the  express  purpose  of  driving 
the  Mormons  from  the  country,  or  extermina- 
ting them,  for  no  other  reason,  that  I  can 
perceive,  than  that  these  poor  deluded  creatures 
owned  a  large  and  fertile  body  of  land  in 
their  neighborhood,  and  would  not  let  them  (the 
Mobocrats)  have  it  for  their  own  price.  I  have 
just  returned  from  the  seat  of  difficulty,  and  am 
perfectly  conversant  with  all  the  facts  in  relation  to 
it.  The  mob  meeting  with  resistance  altogether 
unanticipated,  called  loudly  upon  the  kindred  spirits 
of  adjacent  counties  for  help.  The  Mormons  de- 
termined to  die  in  defence  of  their  rights,  set  abovt 
fortifying  their  town  "Far  West,"  with  a  resolution 
and  energy  that  kept  the  mob  (who  all  the  time 
were  extending  their  cries  of  help  to  all  parts  ot 
Missouri)  at  bay.  The  Governor,  from  exagge- 
rated accounts  of  the  Mormon  depredations,  issued 
orders  for  the  raising  of  several  thousand  mounted 
riflemen,  of  which  this  division  raised  five  hundred, 
and  the  writer  of  this  was  honored  with  the  ap. 
pointment  of to  the  Brigade. 

"  On  the  first  day  of  this  month,  we  marched  for 
the  "  seat  of  war,"  but  General  Clark,  Commander- 
in-chief,  having  reached  Far  West  on  the  day  pre- 
vious with  a  large  force,  the  difficulty  was  settled 


192 


Ohjections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


when  we  arrived,  so  we  escaped  the  infamy  and 
disgrace  of  a  bloody  victory.  Before  General 
Clark's  arrival,  the  mob  had  increased  to  about  four 
thousand,  and  deterniihed  to  attack  the  town.  The 
Mormons  upon  il:c  approach  of  the  mob,  sent  out 
n  white  flag,  which  being  fired  on  by  the  mob,  Jo 
tSaiith  and  Rigdon,  and  a  few  other  Mormons  of 
less  influence,  gave  themselves  up  to  the  mob,  with 
a  view  of  so  far  ajipeasing  their  wrath  as  to  save 
iheir  women  and  children  from  violence.  Vain 
liope  !  The  prisoners  being  secured,  the  mob 
entered  the  town  and  perpetrated  every  conceivable 
act  of  brutality  and  outrage — forcing  fifteen  or 
twenty  Mormon  girls  to  yield  to  their  brutal  pas. 
sionslll  Of  these  things  I  was  assured  by  many 
persons  while  I  was  at  Far  West,  in  whose  veracity 
I  have  the  utmost  confidence.  I  conversed  with 
many  of  the  prisoners,  who  numbered  about  eight 
hundred,  among  whom  there  were  many  young 
and  interesting  girls,  and  I  assure  you,   a  more 


distracted  set  of  creatures  I  never  saw.  I  as 
sure  you,  my  dear  sir,  it  was  peculiarly  heart- 
rending to  see  old  gray  headed  fathers  and  mothers, 
young  ladies  and  innocent  babes,  forced  at  this 
inclement  season,  with  the  thermometer  at  8  de- 
grees below  zero,  to  abandon  their  warm  houses, 
and  many  of  them  the  luxuries  and  elegances  of 
a  high  degree  of  civilization  and  intelligence,  and 
j  take  up  their  march  for  the  uncultivated  wilds  of 
the  Missouri  frontier. 

"  The  better  informed  here  have  but  one  opinion 
of  the  result  of  this  Mormon  persecution,  and  that 
Ls,  it  is  a  most  fearful  extension  of  Judge  Lynch's 
jurisdiction." 

The  present  white  population  of  Missouri  is 
but  thirty  thousand  less  than  that  of  New  Hamp. 
shire,  and  yet  the  insecurity  of  human  life  in  the 
former  state  to  that  in  the  latter,  is  probably  at  leasi 
twenty  to  one. 


ALABAMA. 


This  state  was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1819. 
It3  present  white  population  is  not  far  from  three 
hundred  thousand.  The  security  of  human  hfe  in 
Alabama,  may  be  inferred  from  the  facts  and  tes- 
timony which  follow : 

The  Mobile  Register  of  Nov.  15, 1837,  contains 
the  annual  message  of  Mr.  McVay,  the  acting 
Governor  of  the  state,  at  the  opening  of  the  Legis- 
lature. The  message  has  the  follov.'ing  on 
the  frequency  of  homicides: 

"  We  hear  of  homicides  in  different  parts  of  the 
state  continually,  and  yet  how  few  convictions  for 
murder,  and  still  fewer  executions  ?  How  is  this 
to  be  accounted  for?  In  regard  to  '  assault  and 
battery  with  intent  to  commit  murder,'  why  is  it 
that  this  offence  continues  so  common — why  do 
we  hear  of  stabbings  and  shootings  almost  daily 
in  some  part  or  other  of  our  state  ?" 

The  "  Montgomery  (Alabama)  Advertiser"  of 
April  22,  1837,  has  the  following  from  the  Mobile 
Register  : 

"  Within  a  few  days  a  man  was  shot  in  an 
nffray  in  the  upper  part  of  the  town,  and  has  since 
died.  The  perpetrator  of  the  violence  is  at  large. 
We  need  hardly  speak  of  another  scene  which 
occurred  in  Royal  street,  when  a  fray  occurred  be- 
tween two  individuals,  a  third  standing  by  with  a 
cocked  |)istol  to  prevent  interference.  On  Satur- 
day night  a  still  more  exciting  scene  of  outrage 
took  place  in  the  theatre. 

"An  altercation  commenced  at  the  porquett  en- 
trance between  the  check-taker  and  a  young  man, 
which  ended  in  tlie  first  being  desperately  wpund- 
ed  by  a  stab  with  a  knife.  The  other  also  drew  a 
pistol.  If  some  strange  manifestations  of  public 
"ipinion,  do  not  coerce  a  spirit  of  deference  to  law, 
and  the  abandonment  of  the  habit  of  carrying 
secret  arms,  we  shall  deserve  every  reproach  we 
may  receive,  and  have  our  punishment  in  the  un- 
checked  growth  of  a  spirit  of  lawlessness,  reckless 
deeds,  and  exasperated  feeling,  which  will  des- 
troy our  social  comfort  at  home,  and  respecta- 
bility abroad." 


From  the  "  Hnntsville  Democrat,"  of  Nov.  7,  1837. 
"A  trilling  dispute  arose  between  Silas  Randal 
and  Pharaoh  Massingale,  both  of  Marshall  county. 
They  exchanged  but  a  few  words,  when  the  former 
drew  a  Bowie  knife  and  stabbed  the  latter  in  the 
abdomen  fronting  the  left  hip  to  the  depth  of 
several  inches ;  also  inflicted  several  other  dan- 
gerous wounds,  of  which  Massengale  died  imme- 
diately.— Randal  is  yet  at  large,  not  having  been 
apprehended." 

From  the  "  Free  Press"  of  August  16,  1838. 

"  The  streets  of  Gainesville,  Alabama,  have  re- 
cently been  the  scene  of  a  most  tragic  affair. 
Some  five  weeks  since,  at  a  meeting  of  the  citi. 
zens.  Col.  Christopher  Scott,  a  lawyer  of  good 
standing,  and  one  of  the  most  influential  citizen? 
of  the  place,  made  a  violent  attack  on  the  Toni- 
beckbee  Rail  Road  Company.  A  Mr.  Smith, 
agent  for  the  T.  R.  R.  Company,  took  Col.  C's  re- 
marks as  a  personal  insult,  and  demanded  an  ex- 
planation. A  day  or  two  after,  as  Mr.  Smith  wa-s 
passing  Colonel  Scott's  door,  he  was  shot  down  by 
him,  and  after  lingering  a  few  hours  expired. 

"  It  appears  also  from  an  Alabama  paper,  that 
Col.  Scott's  brother,  L.  S.  Scott  Esq.,  and  L.  J. 
Smith  Esq.,  were  accomplices  of  the  Colonel  in 
the  murder." 

The  following  is  froin  the  "  Natchez  Free  Tra- 
der," June  14,  1S38. 

"  -An  afiray,  attended  with  fatal  consequences,  oc- 
curred in  the  town  of  Moulton,  Alabama,  on  the 
12th  May.  It  appears  that  three  young  men  from 
the  country,  of  the  name  of  J.  Walton,  Geo. 
Bowling,  and  Alexander  Bowling,  rode  into  Moul. 
ton  on  that  day  for  the  purpose  of  chastising  the 
bar-keeper  at  McCord's  tavern,  whose  name  is 
Cowan,  for  an  alleged  insult  oflercd  by  him  to 
the  father  of  young  Walton.  They  made  a  furi- 
ous attack  on  Cowan,  and  drove  him  into  the  bar 
room  of  the  tavern.  Some  time  after,  a  second 
attack  was  made  upon  Cowan  in  the  street  by  ono 
of  the  Bowlings  and  Walton,  when  pistols  were 
resorted  to  by  both  parties.  Three  rounds  wcru 
fired,  and  the  third  shot,  which  was  said  to  have 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


193 


been  discharged  by  Walton,  struck  a  young  man 
by  the  name  of  Neil,  who  happened  to  be  passing 
in  the  street  at  the  time,  and  killed  him  instantly. 
The  combatants  were  taken  into  custody,  and 
after  an  examination  before  two  magistrates,  were 
bailed." 

The  following  exploits  of  the  "  Alabama  Volun- 
teers," are  recorded  in  the  Florida  Herald,  Jan.  1, 
1838. 

"  Save  us  from  our  Friends. — On  Monday 
last,  a  large  body  of  men,  calling  themselves 
Alabama  Volunteers,  arrived  in  the  \ncinity  of  this 
city.  It  is  rejjorted  that  their  conduct  during  their 
inarch  from  Tallahassee  to  this  city  has  been  a 
scries  of  excesses  of  every  description.  They 
have  committed  almost  every  crime  except  murder, 
and  have  even  threatened  life. 

"  Large  numbers  of  them  paraded  our  streets, 
grossly  insulted  our  females,  and  were  otherwise 
extremely  riotous  in  their  conduct.  One  of  the 
squads,  forty  or  fifty  in  number,  on  reaching  the 
bridge,  where  there  was  a  small  guard  of  three  or 
four  men  stationed,  assaulted  the  guard,  overturn- 
ed the  sentry-box  into  the  river,  and  bodily  seized 
two  of  the  giiPad,  and  threw  them  into  the  river, 
where  the  waicr  was  deep,  and  they  were  forced 
to  swim  for  their  lives.  At  one  of  the  men  while 
in  the  water,  tlir.y  pointed  a  musket,  threatening 
to  IviU  him ;  aiul  pelted  with  every  missile  which 
came  to  hand." 

The  following  Alabama  tragedy  is  published  by 
tlie  "Columbia  (S.  C.)  Telescope."  Sept.  16,  1837, 
from  the  VVctumpka  Sentinel. 

"  Our  highly  respectable  townsman,  Mr.  Hugh 
Ware,  a  merchant  of  Wetumpka,  was  standing  in 
the  door  of  his  counting-room,  between  the  hours 
of  8  and  9  o'clock   at  night,  in  company  with  a 
friend,  when  an  assassin  lurked  within  a  few  pa-  j 
ces  of  his  position,   and   discharged  his  musket,  > 
loaded  with  ten  or  fifteen  bucksiiot.     Mr.  Ware  j 
instantly  fell,  and  expired  without  a  struggle  or  a  \ 
groan.     A  coroner's  inquest  decided  that  the  de- 
ceased came  to  his  death  by  violence,  and  that 
Abner  J.  Cody,   and  his  servant  John,  were  the 
perpetrators.      John  frankly  confessed,    that    his 
master,  Cody,  compelled  him  to  assist,  threatening 
his  life  if  be  dared  to  disobey ;  that  he  carried  the 
musket  to  the  place  at  which  it  was  discharged  ; 
that  his  master  then  received  it  from  him,  rested  it 
on  the  fence,  fired  and  killed  Mr.  Ware.'" 

From  the  "  Southern  (Miss.)  l\Iechanic."  April 
17,  1838. 

"  Horrid  Butchery. — A  desperate  fight  oc- 
curred in  Montgomery,  Alabama,  on  the  28th 
ult.  We  learn  from  the  Advocate  of  that  city, 
that  the  persons  engaged  were  Wm.  S.  Mooney 
and  Kenyon  Mooney,  his  son,  Edward  Bell,  and 
Bushrod  Bell,  Jr.  The  first  received  a  wound  in 
{he  abdomen,  made  by  that  fatal  instrument,  the 
Bowie  knife,  which  caused  his  death  in  about 
fifteen  hours.  The  second  was  shot  in  the  side, 
and  would  doubtless  have  been  killed,  had  not  the 
ball  partly  lost  its  force  by  first  striking  his  arm. 
The  third  received  a  shot  in  the  neck,  and  now 
lies  without  hope  of  recovery.  The  fourth  escaped 
anhurt,  and,  we  understand  ha.")  fled.  Tiiis  is  a 
13 


brief  statement  of  one  of  the  bloodiest  fights  that 
we  ever  heard  of." 

From  the  "  Virginia  Statesman,"  May  6,  1837. 
"  Several  affrays,  wherein  pistols,  dirks  and 
knives  were  used,  lately  occurred  at  Mobile.  One 
took  place  on  the  8th  inst.,  at  the  theatre,  in  which 
a  Mr.  Bellum  was  so  badly  stabbed  that  his  life  is 
despaired  of.  On  the  Wednesday  preceding,  a 
man  named  Johnson  shot  another  named  Snov/ 
dead.  No  notice  was  taken  of  the  affair." 
From  the  "Huntsville  Advocate,"  June  20,  1837. 
"  Desperate  Affray. — On  Sunday  the  11th 
inst.,  an  affray  of  des()erate  and  fatal  character 
occurred  near  Chater's  Landing,  Marshall  county, 
Alabama.  The  dispute  which  led  to  it  arose  out 
of  a  contested  right  to  possession  of  a  piece  of 
land.  A  Mr.  Steele  was  the  occupant,  and  Mr. 
James  McFarlane  and  some  others,  claimants. 
Mr.  F.  and  his  friends  went  to  Mr.  Steele's  hous*- 
with  a  view  to  take  possession,  whether  peaceably 
or  by  violence,  we  do  not  certainly  know.  As 
they  entered  the  house  a  quarrel  ensued  between 
two  of  the  opposite  parties,  and  some  blows  per- 
haps followed  ;  in  a  short  time,  several  guns  were 
discharged  from  the  house  at  j\Ir.  McFarlane  and 
friends.  Mr.  M.  was  Irilled,  a  Mr.  Freamster 
dangerously  wounded,  and  it  is  thought  will  not 
recover ;  two  others  were  also  wounded,  though 
not  so  as  to  endanger  life.  Mr.  Steele's  brother 
was  wounded  by  the  discharge  of  a  pistol  irom 
one  of  Mr.  M's.  friends.  We  have  heard  some 
other  particulars  about  the  affray,  but  we  abstain 
from  giving  them,  is  incidental  versions  arc  often 
erroneous,  and  as  the  whole  matter  will  be  sub- 
mitted to  legal  investigation.  Four  of  Steele's 
party,  his  brother,  and  three  whose  names  are 
Lenien.  Collins  and  Wills,  have  been  arrested, 
and  are  now  confined  in  the  goal  in  this  place." 

From  the  "  Norfolk  Beacon,"  July  14,  183S. 

"  A  few  days  since  at  Claysville,  Marshal  co.. 
Alabama,  Messrs.  Nathaniel  and  Graves  W. 
Steele,  while  riding  in  a  carriage,  were  shot  dead, 
and  Alex.  Steele  and  Wm.  Collins,  also  in  the 
carriage,  were  severely  wounded,  (the  former  sup- 
posed mortally,)  by  Messrs.  Jesse  Allen,  Alexan- 
der and  Arthur  i\IcFarlane,  and  Daniel  Dicker- 
son.  The  Slceles,  it  appears,  last  year  killed 
James  IMcFarlane  and  another  person  in  a  simi- 
lar manner,  which  led  to  this  dreadful  retaliation." 

From  the  "  Montgomery  (Ala.)  Advocate — 
Washington,  Autauga  Co.,  Dec.  28,  1838. 

"  Fatal  Re^tcontre. — On  Friday  last,  tlie  28th 
ult.,  a  fatal  rencontre  took  place  in  the  town  ot 
Washington,  Autauga  county,  between  John 
Tittle  and  Thomas  J.  Tarlcton,  which  resulted  in 
the  death  of  the  former.  After  a  patient  investi- 
gation of  the  matter,  Mr.  Tarleton  was  released 
by  the  investigating  tribunal,  on  the  ground  that  the 
homicide  was  clearly  justifiable." 

The  ••  Columbus  (Ga.)  Sentinel,"  July  6,  1837, 
quotes  the  following  from  the  Mobile  (Ala.)  Ex- 
aminer. 

'•  A  man  by  the  name  of  Peter  Church  was 
killed  on  one  of  the  wharves  night  before  last. 
The  person  by  whom  it  was  done  delivered  him. 
self  to  the  proper  authorities  yesterday  morning 


194 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


The  deceased  and  his  destroyer  were  friends,  and 
the  act  occurred  in  consequence  of  an  immaterial 
quarrel." 

The  "  Miiledgeville  Federal  Union"  of  July  11, 
1837,  has  the  following: 

"  In  Selma,  Alabama,  resided  lately  messrs. 
Philips  and  Dickerson,  physicians.  Mr.  P.  is 
brother  to  the  wife  of  W.  Bleevin  Esq.,  a  rich 
cotton  planter  in  that  neighborhood  ;  the  latter  has 
a  very  lovely  daughter,  to  whom  Dr.  D,  paid  his 
addresses.  A  short  time  since  a  gentleman 
from  Mobile  married  her.  Soon  after  this,  a 
schoolmaster  in  Selma  set  a  story  afloat  to  the 
effect,  that  he  had  heard  Dr.  D.  say  things  about 
the  lady's  conduct  before  marriage  which  ought 
Tiot  to  be  said  about  any  lady.  Dr.  D.  denied 
having  said  such  things,  and  the  other  denied 
having  spread  the  story  ;  but  neither  denials  suffi- 
ced to  pacify  the  enraged  parent.  He  met  Dr.  D. 
fired  at  him  two  pistols,  and  wounded  him.  Dr. 
D.  was  unarmed,  and  advanced  to  Mr.  Bleevin, 
holding  up  his  hands  imploringly,  when  Mr.  B. 
drew  a  Bowie  knife,  and  stabbed  him  to  the  heart. 
The  doctor  dropped  dead  on  the  spot :  and  Mr. 
Bleevin  has  been  held  to  bail." 

The  following  is  taken  from  the  "  Alabama  In- 
telligencer,"  Sept.  17,  1838. 

"  On  the  5th  instant,  a  deadly  rencounter  took 
place  in  the  streets  of  Russelville,  (our  county 
ixtwn,)  between  John  A.  Chambers,  Esq.,  of  the 
city  of  mobile,  and  Thomas  L.  Jones,  of  this 
county.  In  the  rencounter,  Jones  was  wounded 
by  several  balls  which  took  effect  in  his  chin, 
mouth,  neck,  arm,  and  shoulder,  believed  to  be 
mortal ;  he  did  not  fire  his  gun. 

"  Mr.  Chambers  forthwith  surrendered  himself  to 
the  Sheriff  of  the  county,  and  was  on  the  6th, 
tried  and  fully  acquitted,  by  a  court  of  inquiry." 

The  "  Maysville  (Ky.)  Advocate"  of  August 
14,  1838,  gives  the  following  affray,  which  took 
place  in  Girard,  Alabama,  July  10th. 

"Two brothers  named  Thomas  and  Hal  Lucas, 
who  had  been  much  in  the  habit  of  quarrelling, 
came  together  under  strong  exciteriient,  and  Tom, 
as  was  his  frequent  custom,  being  about  to  flog 
Hal  with  a  stick  of  some  sort,  the  latter  drew  a 
pistol  and  shot  the  former,  his  own  brother, 
through  the  heart,  who  almost  instantly  expired  !" 

The  "  New  Orleans  Bee"  of  Oct.  5,  1838,  re- 


lates an  affray  in  Mobile,  Alabama,  between  Ben- 
jamin Alexander,  an  aged  man  of  ninety,  with 
Thomas  Hamilton,  his  grandson,  on  the  24th  ol 
September,  in  which  the  former  killed  the  latter 
with  a  dirk. 

The  "  Red  River  Whig"  of  July  7,  1833,  gives  the 
particulars  of  a  tragedy  in  Western  Alabama,  in 
which  a  planter  near  Lake\ille,  left  home  for  some 
days,  but  suspecting  his  wife's  fidelity,  returned 
home  late  at  night,  and  finding  his  suspicions  veri- 
fied,  set  fire  to  his  house  and  waited  with  his  rifle 
before  the  door,  till  his  wife  and  her  paramour  au 
tempted  to  rush  out,  when  he  shot  them  both  de.id. 

From  the  "  Morgan  (Ala.)  Observer,"  Dec.  1838. 

"We  are  informed  from  private  sources,  that 
on  last  Saturday,  a  poor  mp.n  who  v/as  moving 
westward  with  his  wife  and'  three  little  children, 
and  driving  a  small  drove  of  sheep,  and  perhaps  a 
cow  or  two,  which  wae  driven  by  his  family,  on 
arriving  in  Florence,  and  while  passing  through, 
met  with  a  citizen  of  that  place,  who  rode  into  his 
flock  and  caused  him  some  trouble  to  l;eep  it  to- 
gether, when  the  mover  informed  the  individual 
that  he  must  not  do  so  again  or  he  would  throw  a 
rock  at  him,  upon  which  some  words  ensued,  and 
the  individual  again  disturbed  the  flock,  when  the 
mover,  as  near  as  we  can  learn,  threw  at  him 
upon  this  the  troublesome  man  got  ofl'  his  horse, 
went  into  a  grocery,  got  a  gun,  and  came  out  and 
deliberately  shot  the  poor  stranger  in  the  presence 
of  his  wife  and  little  children.  The  wounded  man 
then  made  an  eflbrt  to  get  into  some  house,  when 
his  murderous  assailant  overtook  and  stabbed  him 
to  the  heart  wiih  a  Bowie  knife.  This  revolting 
scene,  we  are  informed,  occurred  in  t!-e  presence 
of  many  citizens,  who,  report  says,  never  even 
lifted  their  voices  in  defence  of  the  murdered 
man." 

A  late  number  of  the  "Flag  of  the  Union,"  pub- 
lished at  Tuscaloosa,  the  seat  of  the  government 
of  Alabama,  states,  that  since  the  commencement 
of  the  late  session  of  tlie  legi-shuure  of  that  state, 
"  no  less  than  thirteen  fights  had  been  had 
within  sight  of  the  capitol."  Pistols  and  Bowit 
knives  were  used  in  every  case. 

The  present  white  population  of  Alabama  is 
about  the  same  with  that  of  New  Jersey,  y^  for 
the  last  twenty  years  there  have  not  been  so  many 
public  deadly  affrays,  and  of  such  a  horriblo 
character,  in  New  Jersey,  as  have  taken  place  in 
Alabama  within  the  last  eight  months. 


MISSISSIPPI. 


Mississippi  became  one  of  the  United  States  in 
1817.  Its  present  white  population  is  about  one 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand. 

The  following  extracts  will  serve  to  show  that 
those  who  combine  together  to  beat,  rob,  and  mana- 
ge innocent  men,  women  and  children,  will  stick 
at  nothing  when  their  passions  are  up. 

The  following  murderous  affray  at  Canton,  Mis- 
sissippi, is  from  the  "Alabama  Beacon,"  Sept,  13, 
1638. 

"A  terrible  tragedy  recently  occurred  at  Canton, 


I  Miss.,  growing  out  of  the  late  duel  between  Messra 
j  Dickins  and  Drane  of  that  jjlace.  A  Kentuckian 
happening  to  bo  in  Canton,  spoke  of  the  duel,  and 
charged  Mr.  Mitchell  Calhoun,  the  second  of  Drane, 
with  cowardice  and  unfairness.  Mr.  Calhoun  call- 
i  ed  on  the  Kentuckian  for  an  explanation,  and  the 
offensive  charge  was  repeated.  A  challenge  and 
fight  with  Bowie  knives,  toe  to  toe,  were  the  con- 
sequences. Both  parties  were  dreadfully  and  dan- 
gerously wounded,  though  neither  was  dead  at  the 
last  advices.  Mr.  Calhoun  is  a  brother  to  tlie  Hon 
John  Calhoun,  member  of  Congress.". 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


195 


Here  follows  the  account  of  the  duel  referred  to 
above,  between  Messrs.  Dickins  and  Drane. 

"  Intelligence  has  been  received  in  this  town  of 
a  fatal  duel  that  took  place  in  Canton,  Miss.,  on  the 
28A  ult.,  between  Rufus  K.  Dickins,  and  a  Mr. 
Westley  Drane.  They  fought  with  double  barrel- 
led guns,  loaded  with  buckshot — both  were  mor- 
tally wounded." 

The  "  Louisville  Journal"  publishes  the  follow- 
ing, Nov.  23. 

"  On  the  7th  instant,  a  fatal  affray  took  place  at 
Gallatin,  Mississippi.  The  principal  parties  con- 
cerned were,  Messrs.  Jijhn  W.  Scott,  James  G. 
Scott,  and  Edmund  B.  Hatch.  The  latter  was  shot 
down  and  then  stabbed  twice  through  the  body,  by 
J.  G.  Scott." 

The  «'  Alabama  Beacon"  of  Sept.  13, 1838,  says  : 
"  An  attempt  was  made  in  Vicksburg  lately,  by 
a  gang  of  Lynchers,  to -inflict  sunmiary  punishment 
on  three  men  of  the  name  of  Fleckenstein.  The 
assault  was  made  upon  the  house,  about  11  o'clock 
at  night.  Meeting  with  some  resistance  from  the 
three  Fleckensteins,  a  leader  of  the  gang,  by  the 
name  of  Helt,  discharged  his  pistol,  and  wounded 
one  of  the  brothers  severely  in  the  neck  and  jaws. 
A  volley  of  four  or  five  shots  was  almost  instantly 
returned,  when  Helt  fell  dead,  a  piece  of  the  top 
of  the  skull  being  torn  off.  and  almost  the  whole  of 
his  brains  dashed  out.  Plis  comrades  seeing  him 
fall,  suddenly  took  to  their  heels.  There  were,  it 
is  supposed,  some  ten  or  fifteen  concerned  in  the 
transaction." 

The  "  Manchester  (Miss.)  Gazette,"  August  11, 
1838,  says  : 

"  It  appears  that  Mr.  Asa  Hazeltine,  who  kept  a 
public  or  boarding  house  in  Jackson,  during  the 
past  winter,  and  Mr.  Benjamin  Tanner,  came  here 
about  five  or  six  weeks  since,  with  the  intention  of 
opening  a  public  house.  Foiled  in  the  design,  in 
the  settlement  of  their  affairs  some  difficulty  arose 
as  to  a  question  of  veracity  between  the-  parties. 
Mr.  Tanner  deeply  excited,  procured  a  pistol  and 
loaded  it  with  the  charge  of  death,  sought  and  found 
itie  9bject  of  his  hatred  in  the  afternoon,  in  the 
yard  of  Messrs.  Kezer  &  Maynard,  and  in  the 
presence  of  several  persons,  after  repeated  and  in- 
effectual attempts  on  the  part  of  Capt.  Jackson  to 
baffle  his  fell  spirit,  shot  the  unfortunate  victim,  of 
which  wound  Mr.  Hazeltine  died  in  a  short  time. 

O"  "  We  understand  that  Mr.  Hazeltine  was  a 
native  of  Boston." 

The  "Columbia  (S.  C.)  Telescope,"  Sept.  16, 
1837,  gives  the  details  below  : 

"By  a  letter  from  Mississippi,  we  have  an  ac- 
count of  a  rencontre  which  took  place  in  Rodney, 
on  the  27th  July,  between  Messrs.  Thos.  J.  John- 
ston and  G.  H.  Wilcox,  both  formerly  of  this  city. 
In  consequence  of  certain  publications  made  by 
these  gentlemen  against  each  other,  Johnston  chal- 
lenged Wilcox.  The  latter  declining  to  accept  the 
challenge,  Johnston  informed  his  friends  at  Rod. 
ney,  that  he  would  be  there  at  the  term  of  the  court 
then  not  distant,  when  he  would  make  an  attack 
upon  him.  He  repaired  thither  on  the  26th,  and 
on  the  next  morning  the  following  communication 


was  read  aloud  in  the  presence  of  Wilcox  and  a 
large  crowd : 

'^  Rodney,  July  21,  1837. 

•'  Mr.  Johnston  informs  Mr.  Wilcox,  that  at  or 
about  1  o'clock  of  this  day,  he  will  be  on  the 
common,  opposite  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  this 
town,  waiting  and  expecting  Mr.  Wilcox  to  meet 
him  there. 

"  1  pledge  my  honor  that  Mr.  Johnston  will  not 
fire  at  Mr.  Wilcox,  until  he  arrives  at  a  distance  of 
one  hundred  yards  from  him,  and  I  desire  Mr.  Wil. 
cox  or  any  of  his  friends,  to  see  that  distance  ac- 
curately measured. 

"  Mr.  Johnston  will  wait  there  thirty  minutes. 
".L  M.  DUFFIELD. 

"  Mr.  Wilcox  declined  being  a  party  to  any  such 
arrangement,  and  Mr.  D.  told  him  to  be  prepared 
for  an  attack.  Accordingly,  about  an  hour  after 
this,  Johnston  proceeded  towards  Wilcox's  office, 
armed  with  a  double-barrelled  gun,  (one  of  the  bar- 
rels rifled,)  and  three  pistols  in  his  belt.  He  halted 
about  fifty  yarils  from  W's  door  and  leveled  his 
gun.  W.  withdrew  before  Johnston  could  fire,  and 
seized  a  musket,  returned  to  the  door  and  flashed. 
Johnston  fired  both  barrels  without  effect.  Wilcox 
then  seized  a  double  barrel  gun,  and  Johnston  a 
musket,  and  both  again  fired.  Wilcox  sent  twen- 
ty-three buck  shot  over  Johnston's  head,  one  of 
them  passing  through  his  hat,  and  Wilcox  was 
slightly  wounded  on  both  hands,  his  thigh  and  ]eg.'» 

From  the  "Alabama  Beacon,"  May  27,  1838. 

"  An  affray  of  the  most  barbarous  nature  was 
expected  to  take  place  in  Arkansas  opposite  Prince, 
ton,  on  Thursday  last.  The  two  original  parties 
have  been  endeavoring  for  several  weeks,  to  settle 
their  differences  at  Natchez.  One  of  the  individu. 
als  concerned  stood  pledged,  our  informant  stales, 
to  fight  three  different  antagonists  in  one  day.  The 
fights,  we  understand,  were  to  be  with  pistols ;  but 
a  variety  of  other  weapons  were  taken  along — 
among  others,  the  deadly  Bowie  knife.  These  laU 
ter  instruments,  we  are  t>)ld,  were  whetted  and 
dressed  up  at  Grand  Gulf,  as  the  parties  passed  up, 
avowedly  with  the  intention  of  being  used  in  the 
field." 
From  the  "  Southern  (Miss)  Argus,"  Nov.  21, 1837. 

"  We  learn  that,  at  a  wood  yard  above  Natchez, 
on  Sunday  evening  last,  a  difficulty  arose  between 
Captain  Crosly,  oi  the  steamboat  Galenian,  and 
one  of  his  deck  passengers.  Capt.  C.  drew  a 
Bowie  knife,  and  made  a  pass  at  the  throat  of  the 
passenger,  which  failed  to  do  any  harm,  and  the 
captain  then  ordered  him  to  leave  his  boat.  The 
man  went  on  board  to  get  his  baggage,  and  the 
captain  immediately  sought  the  cabin  for  a  pistol. 
As  the  passenger  was  about  leaving  the  boat,  the 
captain  presented  a  pistol  to  his  breast,  which 
snapped.  Instantly  the  enraged  and  wronged  in- 
dividual seized  Capt.  Crosly  by  the  throat,  and 
brought  him  to  the  ground,  when  he  drew  a  dirk 
and  stabbed  him  eight  or  nine  times  in  the  breast, 
each  blow  driving  the  weapon  into  his  body  up  to 
the  hilt.  The  passenger  was  arrested,  carried  to 
Natchez,  tried  and  acquitted." 

The  "Planter's  Intelligencer"  pul)lishes  the  follow- 
ing from  the  Vicksburg  Sentmel  of  June  19,  1838. 

"  About  1  o'clock,  we  observed  two  men  •  pum. 
meling"  one  another  in  the  street,  to  the  infinite 


196 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


ariiusement  of  a  crowd.  Presently  a  third  hero 
made  his  appearance  in  the  arena,  with  Bowie 
knife  in  hand,  and  he  cried  out,  '  Let  me  come  at 
him  !'  Upon  hearing  this  threat,  one  of  the  pugi. 
lists  '  took  himself  off,'  our  hero  following  at  full 
speed.  Finding  his  pursuit  was  vain,  our  hero  re- 
turned, when  an  attack  was  commenced  upon  an- 
other individual.  He  was  most  cruelly  beat,  and 
cut  through  the  skull  with  a  knife  ;  it  is  feared  the 
wounds  will  prove  mortal.  The  sufferer,  we  learn, 
in  an  inofi'ensive  German." 

From  the  "  Mississippian,"  Nov.  9,  1838. 

"  On  Tuesday  evening  last,  23d,  an  affray  oc- 
curred at  the  town  of  Tallahasse,  in  this  county, 
between  Hugh  Roark  and  Captain  Flack,  which 
resulted  in  the  death  of  Roark.  Roark  went  to 
bed,  and  Flack,  who  was  in  the  bar-room  below, 
observed  to  some  persons  there,  that  he  believed 
they  had  set  up  Roark  to  whip  him  ;  Roark,  upon 
hearing  his  name  mentioned,  got  out  of  bed  and 
came  down  stairs.  Flack  mot  and  stabbed  him  in 
the  lower  part  of  his  abdomen  with  a  knife,  letting 
out  his  bowels.  Roark  ran  to  the  door,  and  re- 
ceived another  stab  in  the  back.  He  lived  until 
Thursday  night,  when  he  expired  in  great  agony. 
Flack  was  tried  before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and 
v.e  understand  was  only  held  to  bail  to  appear  at 
court  in  the  event  Roark  should  die." 

From  the  "Grand  Gulf  Advertiser,"  Nov.  7,  1838. 
"  Attempt  at  Riot  at  Natchez. — The  Courier 
says,  that  in  consequence  of  the  discharge  of  cer- 
tain individuals  who  had  been  arraigned  for  the 
murder  of  a  man  named  MediH,  a  mob  of  about 
200  persons  assembled  on  the  night  of  the  1st  in- 
stant, with  the  avowed  purpose  of  li/ncJtiiig  them. 
But  fortunately,  the  objects  of  their  "vengeance  had 
escaped  from  town.  Foiled  in  their  purpose,  the 
rioters  repaired  to  the  shantee  where  the  murder 
was  committed,  and  precipitated  it  over  the  bluff. 
The  military  of  the  city  were  ordered  out  to  keep 
order." 

From  the  "  Natchez  Free  Trader." 

"  A  violent  attack  was  lately  made  on  Captain 
Barrett,  of  the  steamboat  Southerner,  by  three  per- 
sons from  Wilkinson  co.,  Miss.,  whose  names  are 
Carey,  and  one  of  the  name  of  .f.  S.  Towles.  The 
only  reason  for  the  outrage  was,  that  Captain  B. 
had  the  assurance  to  require  of  the  gendemen,  who 
v/ere  quarreling  on  board  his  boat,  to  keep  order 
for  the  peace  and  comfort  of  the  other  passengers. 
Towles  drew  a  Bowie  knife  upon  the  Captain, 
v.'hich  the  latter  wrested  from  him.  A  pistol,  drawn 
by  one  of  the  Careys  was  also  taken,  and  the  as- 
eiiilant  was  knocked  overboard.  Fortunately  for 
him  he  was  rescued  from  drowning.  The  brave 
band  then  landed.  On  her  return  up  the  river,  the 
Southerner  stopped  at  Fort  Adams,  and  on  her 
leaving  that  place,  an  armed  party,  among  whom 
were  the  Careys  and  Towles,  fired  into  the  boat, 
bat  happily  the  shot  missed  a  crowd  of  passengers 
on  the  hurricane  deck." 

From  the  "Mississippian,"  Dec.  18,  1838. 

"  Greer  Spikes,  a  citizen  of  this  county,  was  kill- 
ed a  few  days  ago,  between  this  place  and  Ray. 
iiiond,  by  a  man  named  Pegram.  It  seems  that 
Pegram  and  Spikes  had  been  carrying  weapons  for 
ea..h  other  for  some  time  past.     Pegram  had  threat. 


ened  to  take  Spikes'  life  on  first  sight,  for  the  base 
treatment  he  had  received  at  his  hands. 

"  We  have  heard  soinething  of  the  particulars, 
but  not  enough  to  give  them  at  this  time.  Pegram 
had  not  been  seen  since." 

The  "  Lynchburg  Virginian,"  July  23,  1838,  says  : 
"  A  fatal  affray  occurred  a  few  days  ago  in  Clin- 
ton, Mississippi.  The  actors  in  it  were  a  Mr.  Par- 
ham,  Mr.  Shackleford,  and  a  Mr.  Henry.  Shac. 
kleford  was  killed  on  the  spot,  and  Henry  was 
slightly  wounded  by  a  shot  gun  with  which  Par- 
ham  was  armed." 

From  the  "  Columbus  (Ga.)  Sentinel,"  Nov.  22, 
1838. 

"  Butchery. — A  Bowie  knife  slaughter  took 
place  a  kw  days  since  in  Honesville,  Miss.  A 
Mr.  Hobbs  was  the  victim  ;  Strother  the  butcher." 

The  "  Vicksburg  Sentinel,"  Sept.  28,  1837,  says  : 
"It  is  only  a  few  weeks  since  humanity  was 
shocked  by  a  most  atrocious  outrage,  inflicted  by 
the  Lynchers,  on  the  person  of  a  Mr.  Saunderson 
of  Madison  co.  in  this  state.  They  dragged  this 
respectable  planter  from  the  bosom  of  his  family, 
and  mutilated  him  in  the  most  brutal  manner — 
maiming  him  most  inhumanly,  besides  cutting  ofl 
his  nose  and  ears  and  scarifying  his  body  to  the 
very  ribs  I  We  believe  the  subject  of  this  foul  out- 
rage still  drags  out  a  miserable  existence — an  ob- 
ject of  horror  and  of  pity.  Last  week  a  club  of 
Lynchers,  amounting  to  four  or  five  individuals,  as 
we  have  been  credibly  informed,  broke  into  the 
house  of  Mr.  Scott  of  Wilkinson  co.,  a  respecta- 
ble  member  of  the  bar,  forced  him  out,  and  hung 
him  dead  on  the  next  tree.  We  have  heard  of  nu- 
merous minor  outrages  committed  against  the  peace 
of  society,  and  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the 
country;  but  we  mention  these  as  the  most  enor- 
mous that  we  have  heard  for  some  months. 

"  It  now  becomes  our  painful  duty,  to  notice  a 
most  disgraceful  outrage  committed  by  the  Lynch- 
ers of  Vicksburg,  on  last  Sunday.  The  victim  was 
a  Mr.  Grace,  formerly  of  the  neighborhood  of  War- 
renton,  Va.,  but  for  two  years  a  resident  of  this  ci- 
ty. He  was  detected  in  giving  free  passes  to  slaves 
and  brought  to  trial  before  Squire  Maxcy.  Unfor- 
tunately for  the  wretch,  either  through  the  want  of 
law  or  evidence,  he  could  not  be  punished,  and  he 
was  set  at  liberty  by  the  magistrate.  The  city  mar- 
shal seeing  that  a  few  in  the  crowd  were  disposed 
to  lay  violent  hands  on  the  prisoner  in  the  event  of 
his  escaping  punishincnt  by  law,  resolved  to  acconi. 
pany  him  to  his  house.  The  Lynch  mob  still  fol. 
lowed,  and  the  marshal  findiiiir  the  prisoner  could 
only  be  protected  by  hurrying  hiin  to  jail,  endeavor, 
ed  to  effect  that  object.  The  Lynchers,  however, 
pursued  the  officer  of  the  law,  dragged  him  from 
his  horse,  bruised  him,  and  conveyed  the  prisoner 
to  the  most  convenient  point  of  the  city  for  carry 
ing  their  blood.thirsty  designs  into  execution.  We 
blush  while  we  record  the  atrocious  deed  ;  in  this 
city,  containing  nearly  5,000  souls,  in  the  broad 
light  of  day,  this  aged  wretch  was  stripped  and 
flogged,  we  believe  within  hearing  of  the  lamenta- 
tions and  the  shrieks  of  his  afflicted  wife  and  chil- 
dren." 

In  an  affray  at  Montgomery,  Mississippi,  July 
1,  1838,  Mr.  A.  L.  Herbert  was  killed  by  Dr.  J 


.  Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


197 


B.  Harrington.  See  Grand  Gulf  Advertiser,  Au- 
gust 1,  1838. 

The  "  Maryland  Republican"  of  January  30, 
1838,  has  the  following  : 

"  A  street  rencounter  lately  took  place  in  Jack- 
son, Miss.,  between  Mr.  Robert  McDonald  and 
Mr.  W.  H.  Lockhart,  in  which  McDonald  was  shot 
with  a  pistol  and  immediately  expired.  Lockhart 
was  cominilted  to  prison." 

The  '•  Nashville  Banner,"  June  22, 1838,  has  the 
following : 

"  On  the  8th  inst.  Col.  James  M.  Ilulet  was  shot 
with  a  rifle  without  any  apparent  provocation  in 
Gallatin,  Miss.,  by  one  Richard  M.  Jones." 

From  the  "  Huntsville  Democrat,"  Dec.  8,  1838. 

"  The  Aberdeen  (Miss.)  Advocate,  of  Saturday 
last,  states  that  on  the  morning  of  the  day  previous, 
(the  9th)  a  dispute  arose  between  Mr.  Robert 
Smith  and  Mr.  Alexander  Eanes,  both  of  Aber- 
deen, which  resulted  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Smith, 
who  kept  a  boarding-house,  and  was  an  amiable 
man  and  a  good  citizen.  In  the  course  of  the  con- 
tradictory words  of  the  disputants,  the  lie  was  given 
by  Eanes,  upon  which  Smith  gathered  up  a  piece 
of  iron  and  threw  it  at  Eanes,  but  which  missed 
him  and  lodged  in  the  walls  of  the  house.  At  this, 
Eanes  drew  a  large  dirk  knife,  and  stabbed  Smith  in 
the  abdomen,  the  knife  penetrating  the  vitals,  and 
thus  causing  immediate  death.  Smith  breathed 
only  a  few  seconds  after  the  fatal  thrust. 

"  Eanes  immediately  mounted  his  horse  and  rode 
off,  but  was  pursued  by  Mr.  Hanes,  who  arrested 
and  took  him  back,  when  he  was  put  under  guard 
to  await  a  trial  before  the  proper  authorities." 

From  the  •♦  Vicksburg  Register,"  Nov.  17,  1838. 

*'  On  the  2d  inst.  an  affray  occurred  between 
one  Stephen  Scarbrough  and  A.  W.  Higbee  of 
Grand  Gulf,  in  which  Scarbrough  was  stabbed  with 
a  knife,  which  occasioned  his  death  in  a  few  hours. 
Higbee  has  been  arrested  and  committed  for  trial." 

From  the  "  Huntsville  (Ala.)  Democrat,"  Nov. 
10,  1838. 

"  Life  in  the  Southwest. — A  friend  in  Louisiana 
writes,  under  date  of  the  31st  ult.,  that  a  fight  took 
place  a  few  days  ago  in  Madison  parish,  60  miles 
below  Lake  Providence,  between  a  Mr.  Nevilsand 
a  Mr.  Harper,  which  terminated  fatally.  The  po- 
lice jury  had  ordered  a  road  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  neighboring  planters  were 
out  with  their  forces  to  open  it.  For  some  offence, 
Nevils,  the  superintendent  of  the  operations,  flogged 
two  of  Harper's  negroes.  The  next  day  the  par- 
ties met  on  horseback,  when  Harper  dismounted, 
and  proceeded  to  cowskin  Nevils  for  the  chastise- 
ment inflicted  on  the  negroes.  Nevils  immediate- 
ly drew  a  pistol  and  shot  his  assailant  dead  on  the 
spot.  Both  were  gentlemen  of  the  highest  respec- 
tability. 

"  An  affray  also  came  off  recently,  as  the  same 
correspondent  writes  us,  in  Raymond,  Hinds  co.. 
Miss.,  which  for  a  serious  one,  was  rather  amusing. 
The  sheriff  had  a  process  to  serve  on  a  man  of  the 
name  of  Bright,  and,  in  consequence  of  some  dif- 
ficulty and  intemperate  language,  thought  proper 
to  commence  the  service  by  the  application  of  his 


cowskin  to  the  defendant.  Bright  thereupon 
floored  his  adversary,  and,  wresting  his  cowhide 
from  him,  applied  it  to  its  owner  to  the  extent  of  at 
least  five  hundred  lashes,  meanwhile  threatening 
to  shoot  the  first  bystander  who  attempted  to  inter- 
fere. The  sheriff  was  carried  home  in  a  state  of 
insensibility,  and  his  life  has  been  despaired  of. 
The  mayor  of  the  place,  however,  issued  his  war- 
rant, and  started  three  of  the  sheriff's  deputies  in 
pursuit  of  the  dehnquent,  but  the  latter,  after  keep- 
ing them  at  bay  till  they  found  it  impossible  to 
arrest  him,  surrendered  himself  to  the  magistrate, 
by  whom  he  was  bound  over  to  the  next  Circuit 
Court.  From  the  mayor's  office,  his  honor  and  the 
parties  litigant  proceeded  to  the  tavern  to  take  a 
drink  by  way  of  ending  hostilities.  But  the  civil 
functionary  refused  to  sign  articles  of  peace  by 
touciiing  glasses  with  Bright,  whereupon  the  latter 
made  a  furious  assault  upon  him,  and  then  turned 
and  flogged  '  mine  host'  within  an  inch  of  his 
life  because  he  interfered.  Satisfied  with  his 
day's  work,  Brigiu  retired.  Can  we  show  any 
such  specimens  of  chivalry  and  refinement  in 
Kentucky  !" 

From  the  "  Grand  Gulf  (Miss.)  Advertiser," 
June  27,  1837. 

"  Death  by  Violence. — The  moral  atmosphere 
in  our  state  appears  to  be  in  a  deleterious  and 
sanguinary  condition.  Almost  every  exchange 
paper  which  reaches  us  contains  some  inhuman 
and  revolting  case  of  murder  or  death  by  vio- 
lence.  Not  less  than  fifteen  deaths  by  violence 
have  occurred,  to  our  certain  knowledge,  within 
the  past  three  months.  Such  a  state  of  things,  in 
a  country  professing  to  be  moral  and  christian,  is 
a  disgrace  to  human  nature,  and  is  well  calculated 
to  induce  those  abroad  unacquainted  with  our 
general  habits  and  feelings,  to  regard  the  morals 
of  our  people  in  no  very  enviable  light ;  and  does 
more  to  injure  and  weaken  our  pohtical  institu- 
tions than  years  of  pecuniary  distress.  The  fre- 
quency of  such  events  is  a  burning  disgrace  to  the 
morality,  civilization,  and  refinement  of  feeling  to 
which  we  lay  claim,  and  so  often  boast,  in  com- 
parison with  the  older  states.  And  unless  we  sot 
about  and  put  an  immediate  and  effectual  ter- 
mination to  such  revolting  scenes,  we  shall  be 
compelled  to  part  with  what  all  genuine  southern- 
ers have  ever  regarded  as  their  richest  inheritance, 
the  proud  appellation  of  the  '  brave,  high-minded 
and  chivalrous  sons  of  the  south.'' 

"  This  done,  we  should  soon  discover  a  change  for 
the  better — peace  and  good  order  would  prevail, 
and  the  ends  of  justice  be  effectually  and  speedily 
attained,  and  then  the  people  of  this  wealthy  state 
would  be  in  a  condition  to  bid  defiance  to  the  dis- 
graceful reproaches  which  are  now  daily  heaped 
upon  them  by  the  religious  and  moral  of  other 
states." 

"  The  present  white  population  of  Mississippi  is 
but  little  more  than  half  as  great  as  that  of  Ver- 
mont, and  yet  more  horrible  crimes  are  perpetra- 
ted by  them  every  month,  than  have  ever  been 
perpetrated  in  Vermont  since  it  has  been  a  state, 
now  about  half  a  century.  Whoever  doubts  it,  let 
liim  get  data  and  make  his  estimate,  and  he  will 
find  that  this  is  no  random  guess. 


198 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


LOUISIANA. 


Louisiana  became  one  of  the  United  States  in 
1811.  Its  present  wliite  population  is  about  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  thousand. 

The  extracts  which  follow  furnish  another  illus- 
tration of  the  horrors  produced  by  passions  blown 
up  to  fury  in  the  furnace  of  arbitrary  power.  We 
have  just  been  looking  over  a  broken  file  of  Louis- 
iana papers,  including  the  last  six  months  of  1837, 
and  the  whole  of  1838,  and  find  ourselves  obliged 
to  abandon  our  design  of  publishing  even  an  ab- 
stract of  the  scores  and  hundreds  of  afl'rays,  mur- 
ders, assassinations,  duels,  lynchings,  assaults,  &c. 
which  took  place  in  that  state  during  that  period. 
Those  which  have  taken  place  in  New  Orleans 
alone,  during  the  last  eighteen  months,  would,  in 
detail,  fill  a  volume.  Instead  of  inserting  the  de- 
tails of  the  principal  atrocities  in  Louisiana,  as  in 
the  states  already  noticed,  we  will  furnish  the  read- 
er with  the  testimony  of  various  editors  of  newspa- 
pers, and  others,  residents  of  the  state,  which  will 
perhaps  as  truly  set  forth  the  actual  state  of  society 
there,  as  could  be  done  by  a  publication  of  the  out- 
rages themselves. 

From  the  "New  Orleans  Bee,"  of  May  23, 
1838. 

"  Contempt  of  human  life. — In  view  of  the 
crimes  which  are  daily  committed,  we  are  led  to 
inquire  whether  it  is  owing  to  the  inefficiency  of 
our  laws,  or  to  the  manner  in  which  those  laws  arc 
administered,  that  this  frightful  deluge  of  human 
blood  flows  through  our  streets  and  our  places  of 
public  resort. 

"  Whither  will  such  contempt  for  the  life  of  man 
lead  us  ?  The  unhealthiness  of  the  climate  mows 
down  annually  a  part  of  our  population  ;  the  mur- 
derous sieel  despatches  its  proportion;  and  if  crime 
increases  as  it  has,  the  latter  will  soon,  become  the 
most  powerful  agent  in  destroying  life. 

"We  cannot  but  doubt  the  perfection  of  our 
criminal  code,  when  we  see  that  almost  every  cri- 
minal eludes  the  law,  either  by  boldly  avowing  the 
crime,  or  by  the  tardiness  with  which  legal  prose- 
cutions are  carried  on,  or,  lastly,  by  the  convenient 
application  of  bail  in  criminal  cases." 

The  "New  Orleans  Picayune"  of  July  30, 1837, 
says : 

"  It  is  with  the  most  painful  feehngs  that  we 
daily  hear  of  some  fatal  duel.  Yesterday  we 
were  told  of  the  unhappy  end  of  one  of  our  most 
influential  and  highly  respectable  merchants,  who 
fell  yesterday  morning  at  sunrise  in  a  duel.  As 
usual,  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  meeting 
were  trivial." 

The  New  Orleans  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Express,  in  his  letter  dated  New  Orleans, 
July  30,  1837,  says : 

"  Thirtken  duels  have  been  fought  in  and  near 


the  city  during  the  week ;  fivs  more  were  to  take 
place  this  morning." 

The  "New  Orleans  Merchant"  of  March  20, 
1838,  says : 

"  Murder  has  been  riie  within  the  two  or  three 
weeks  last  past;  and  what  is  worse,  the  authorities 
of  those  places  where  they  occur  are  perfectly  re- 
gardlcss  of  the  fact." 

The  "  New  Orleans  Bee"  of  September  8,  1838, 

says : 

"  Not  two  months  since,  the  miserable  Barba 
became  a  victim  to  one  of  the  most  cold-blooded 
schemes  of  assassination  that  ever  disgraced  a 
civilized  community.  Last  Sunday  evening  an 
individual,  Gonzales  by  name,  was  seen  in  perfect 
health,  in  conversation  with  his  friends.  On  Mon- 
day morning  his  dead  body  was  withdrawn  from 
the  Mississippi,  near  the  ferry  of  the  first  munici- 
pality, in  a  stale  of  terrible  mutilation.  To  cap  the 
climax  of  horror,  on  P'riday  morning,  about  half 
past  six  o'clock,  the  coroner  was  called  to  hold  an 
inquest  over  the  body  of  an  individual,  between 
Magazine  and  Tchoupitoulas  streets.  The  head 
was  entirely  severed  from  the  body  ;  the  lower  ex- 
tremities  had  likewise  suffered  amputation ;  the 
right  foot  was  completely  dismembered  from  the 
leg,  and  the  left  knee  nearly  severed  from  the 
thigh.  Several  stabs,  wounds  and  bruises,  were 
discovered  on  various  parts  of  the  body,  which  of 
themselves  were  sufficient  to  produce  death." 

The  "  Georgetown  (South  Carolina)  Union"  of 
May  20,  1837,  has  the  following  extract  from  a 
New  Orleans  paper. 

"  A  short  time  since,  two  men  shot  one  another 
down  in  one  of  our  bar  rooms,  one  of  whom  died 
instantly.  A  day  or  two  after,  one  or  two  infants 
were  found  murdered,  there  was  every  reason  to 
believe,  by  their  own  mothers.  Last  week  we  had 
to  chronicle  a  brutal  and  bloody  murder,  committed 
in  the  heart  of  our  city :  the  very  next  day  a  mur- 
der-trial was  commenced  in  our  criminal  court : 
the  day  ensuing  this,  we  published  the  particulara 
of  Hart's  murder.  The  day  after  that,  Tihbetta 
was  hung  for  attempting  to  commit  a  murder  ;  the 
next  day  again  we  had  to  publish  a  murder  com- 
rnitted  by  two  Spaniards  at  the  Lake — this  was  on 
Friday  last.  On  Sunday  we  published  the  account 
of  another  murder  committed  by  the  Italian,  Gre- 
gorio.  On  Monday,  another  murder  was  commit- 
ted, and  the  murderer  lodged  in  jail.  On  Tuesday 
morning  another  man  was  stabbed  and  robbed, 
and  is  not  likely  to  recover,  but  the  assassin  es- 
caped. The  same  day  Reynolds,  who  killed  Bar- 
re,  shot  himself  in  prison.  On  W^edncsday,  another 
person,  Mr.  Nicolet,  blew  out  his  brains.  Ycster- 
day,  the  unfortunate  George  Clement  destroyed 
himself  in  his  cell;  and  in  addition  to  this  dreadful 
catalogue  we  have  to  add  that  of  the  death  of  two 
brothers,  who  destroyed  themselves  through  grief 
at  the  death  of  their  mother;  and  truly  may  we 
say  that  ♦  we  know  not  what  to-morrow  will  bring 
forth.'  " 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


199 


The  "  Louisiana  Advertiser,"  as  quoted  by  the 
Silt  River  (Mo.)  Journal  of  May  25,  1837,  says : 

"  Within  the  last  ten  or  twelve  days,  three  sui- 
cides,  four  murders,  and  two  executions,  have  oc- 
curred in  the  city  !  " 

The  "  New  Orleans  Bee"  of  October  25,  1837, 
says: 

"  We  remark  with  regret  the  frightful  list  of  ho- 
micides that  are  daily  committed  in  New  Orleans." 

The  "  Planter's  Banner"  of  September  30,  1838, 
published  at  Franklin,  Louisiana,  after  giving  an 
account  of  an  affray  between  a  number  of  planters, 
in  which  three  were  killed  and  a  fourth  mortally 
wounded,  says  that  "  Davis  (one  of  the  murderers) 
was  arrested  by  the  by-standers,  but  a  justice  of 
the  peace  came  up  and  told  them,  he  did  not  think 
it  right  to  keep  a  man  '  tied  in  that  manner,'  and 
'  thought  it  best  to  turn  him  loose.'  It  was  ac 
cordingly  so  done." 

This  occurred  ia'the  parish,  of  Harrisonburg. 
Tl»e  Banner  closes  the  account  by  saying : 

"  Our  informant  states  tliat  Jivs  lohite  men  and 
one  negro  have  been  murdered  in  the  parish  of 
Madison,  during  the  months  of  July  and  August." 

This  justice  of  the  peace,  who  bade  the  by- 
standers unloose  the  murderer,  mentioned  above, 
^has  plenty  of  birds  of  his  own  feather  among  the 
law  officers  of  Louisiana.  Two  of  the  leading 
officers  in  the  New  Orleans  police  took  two  wit- 
nesses, while  undergoing  legal  examination  at 
Lexington,  near  New  Orleans,  "  carried  them  to  a 
bye-place,  and  lynched  them,  during  which  inqui- 
sitorial operations,  they  divulged  every  thing  to  the 
officers,  Messrs.  Foyle  and  Grossman."  The  pre- 
ceding fact  is  published  in  the  Maryland  Repubh- 
can  of  August  22,  1837. 

Judge  Lansuge  of  New  Orleans,  in  his  address 
at  the  opening  of  the  criminal  court,  Nov.  4, 1837, 
published  in  the  "Bee"  of  Nov.  8,  in  remarking 
upon  the  prevalence  of  out-breaking  crimes,  says : 

"  Is  it  possible  in  a  civihzed  country  such  crying 
abuses  are  constantly  encounleredl  How  many 
individuals  have  given  themselves  up  to  such  cul- 
pable  habits  !  Yet  we  find  magistrates  and  juries 
hesitating  to  expose  crimes  of  the"  blackest  dye  to 
eternal  contempt  and  infamy,  to  the  vengeance  of 
the  law. 

"  As  a  Louisianian  parent,  I  reflect  with  terror 
that  our  beloved  children,  reared  to  become  one 
day  honorable  and  useful  citizens,  may  be  the  vic- 
tims of  these  votaries  of  vice  and  licentiousness. 
Without  some  powerful  and  certain  remedy,  our 
streets  loill  become  butcheries  overflowing  with 
the  blood  of  our  citizens.'''' 

The  Editor  of  the  "  New  Orleans  Bee,"  in  his  pa- 
per of  Oct.  21,  1837,  has  a  long  editorial  article,  in 
which  he  argues  for  the  virtual  legahzing  of  Lynch 
Law,  as  follows : 

"We  think  then  that  in  the  circumstances  in 
which  we  are  placed,  the  Legislature  ought  to  sanc- 
tion such  measures  as  the  situation  of  the  country 
render  necessary,  by  givmg  to  justice  a  convenient 
latitude  There  are  occasions  when  the  delays 
inseparable  from  the  administration  of  justice  would 


be  inimical  to  the  public  safety,  and  where  the 
most  fatal  consequences  would  be  the  result. 

"  It  appears  to  us,  that  there  is  an  urgent  neces- 
sity to  provide  against  the  inconveniences  which 
result  from  popular  judgment,  and  to  check  the 
disposition  for  the  speedy  execution  of  justice,  re- 
suiting  from  the  unconstitutional  principle  of  a 
pretended  Lynch  law,  by  authorizing  the  parish 
court  to  take  cognizance  without  delay,  against 
every  free  man  who  shall  be  convicted  of  a  crime, 
from  the  accusations  arising  from  the  mere  provo- 
cations to  the  insurrection  of  the  working  classes. 

"  .A.11  judicial  sentences  ought  to  be  based  upon 
law,  and  the  terrible  privilege  which  the  populace 
now  have  of  punishing  with  death  certain  crimes, 
ought  to  be  consecrated  by  law,  powerful  interests 
would  not  suffice  in  our  view  to  excuse  the  inter- 
ruption of  social  order,  if  the  public  safety  was  not 
with  us  tlie  supreme  law. 

"  This  is  the  reason  that  whilst  we  deplore  the 
imperious  necessity  which  exists,  we  entreat  the 
legislative  power  to  give  the  sanction  of  principle  to 
what  already  exists  in  fact." 

The  Editor  of  the  "  New  Orleans  Bee,"  in  his  pa- 
per, Oct.  25,  1837,  says  : 

"  We  remark  with  regret  the  frightful  Ust  of 
homicides,  whether  justifiable  or  not,  that  are  daily 
committed  in  New  Orleans.  It  is  not  through  any 
inherent  vice  of  legal  provision  that  such  outrages 
are  perpetrated  with  impunity  :  it  is  rather  in  the 
neglect  of  the  application  of  the  law  which  exists 
on  this  subject. 

"  We  will  confine  our  observation  to  the  danger- 
ous facilities  afforded  by  this  code  for  the  escape  of 
the  homicide.  We  are  well  aware  that  the  laws  in 
question  are  intended  for  the  distribution  of  equal 
justice,  yet  we  have  too  often  witnessed  the  ac- 
quittal of  delinquents  whom  we  can  denominate 
by  no  other  title  than  that  of  homicides,  while  the 
simple  affirmation  of  others  has  been  admitted 
(in  default  of  testimony)  who  are  themselves  the 
authors  of  the  deed,  for  which  they  stand  in  judg. 
ment.  The  indiscriminate  system  of  accepting 
bail  is  a  blot  on  our  criminal  legislation,  and  is  one 
great  reason  why  so  many  violators  of  the  law 
avoid  its  penalties.  To  this  doubtless  must  be  as- 
cribed the  non-interference  of  the  Attorney  General. 
The  law  of  habeas  corpus  being  subjected  to  the 
interpretation  of  every  magistrate,  whether  versed 
or  not  in  criminal  cases,  a  degree  of  arbitrary  and 
incorrect  explanation  necessarily  results.  How 
frequently  docs  it  happen  that  the  Mayor  or  Re- 
corder decides  upon  the  gravest  case  without  put- 
ting himself  to  the  smallest  trouble  to  inform  the 
Attorney  General,  who  sometimes  only  hears  of 
the  affair  when  investigation  is  no  longer  possible, 
or  when  the  criminal  has  wisely  commuted  his 
punishment  into  temporary  or  perpetual  exile. 

That  morahty  suffers  by  such  practices,  is  be- 
yond a  doubt ;  yet  moderation  and  mercy  are  so 
beautiful  in  theinselves,  that  we  would  scarcely 
protest  against  indulgence,  were  it  not  well  known 
that  the  acceptance  of  bail  is  the  safeguard  of 
every  dehnquent  who,  through  wealth  or  connec- 
tions, possesses  influence  enough  to  obtain  it. 
Here  arbitrary  construction  glides  amidst  the  con- 
fusion of  testimony ;  there  it  presumes  upon  the 
want  of  evidence,  and  from  one  cause  oranotheritis 
extremely  rare,  tliat  a  refusal  to  bail  has  dehverod 


200 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


the  accused  into  the  hands  of  justice.  In  crimi- 
nal cases,  the  Court  and  Jury  are  the  proper  tribu- 
nals to  decide  upon  the  reality  of  the  crime,  and 
the  palliating  circumstances ;  yet  it  is  not  unfre- 
qtient  for  the  public  voice  to  condemn  as  an  odious 
assassin,  tlie  very  individual  who  by  the  acquittal 
of  the  judge,  walks  at  large  and  scofls  at  justice. 

"  It  is  time  to  restrict  within  its  proper  limits  this 
pretended  right  of  personal  protection  ;  it  is  time 
ro  teach  our  population  to  abstain  from  mutual 
murder  upon  slight  provocation. — Duelline:,  Hea. 
ven  knows,  is  dreadful  enough,  and  quite  a  suffi- 
cient means  of  gratifying  private  aversion,  and 
avenging  insult.  Frequent  and  serious  brawls  in 
our  cafes,  streets  and  houses,  every  where  attest 
the  insufficiency  or  misapplication  of  our  legal  code, 
or  the  want  of  energy  in  its  organs.  To  say  that 
unbounded  license  is  the  result  of  Hberty  is  folly. 
Liberty  is  the  consequence  of  well  regulated  laws — 
without  these.  Freedom  can  exist  only  in  name, 
and  the  law  which  favors  the  escape  of  the  opu- 
lent and  aristocratic  from  the  penakies  of  retribu- 
tion, but  consigns  the  poor  and  friendless  to  the 
chain-gang  or  the  gallows,  is  in  fact  the  very  es- 
sence of  slavery  I  I 

The  editor  of  the  same  paper  says  (Nov.  4, 1837.) 
*'  Perhaps  by  an  equitable,  but  strict  application 
of  that  law,  (the  law  which  forbids  the  wearing  of 
deadly  weapons  concealed,)  the  effusion  of  human 
blood  might  be  stopt  which,  now  defiles  our  streets 
and  our  coffee-houses  as  if  they  were  shambles  ! 
Reckless  disregard  of  the  life  of  man  is  rapidly 
gaining  ground  among  us,  and  the  habit  of  seeing 
a  man  whom  it  is  taken  for  granted  was  armed, 
murdered  merely  for  a.  gesture,  may  influence  the 
opinion  of  a  jury  composed  of  citizens,   whom, 

LONG   IMPUNITY    TO    HOMICIDES    OF    EVERY    KIND  has 

persuaded,  that  the  right  of  self-defence  extends 
even  to  the  taking  of  hfe  for  gestures,  more  or  less 
threatening.  So  many  daily  instances  of  out- 
breaking passion  which  have  thrown  whole  fami- 
lies into  the  deepest  affliction,  teach  us  a  terrible 
lesson." 

From  the  *'  Columbus  (Ga.)  Sentinel,"  July  6, 
1837. 

"  Wholesale   Murders. — No    less   than    three 


murders  were  committed  in  New  Orleans  on 
Monday  evening  last.  The  first  was  that  of  a 
man  in  Poydras,  near  the  corner  of  Tehapitoulas. 
The  murdered  individual  had  been  suspected  of  a 
liason  with  another  man's  wife  in  the  neighbour 
hood,  was  caught  in  the  act,  followed  to  the  above 
corner  and  shot. 

"  The  second  was  that  of  a  man  in  Perdido  street. 
Circumstances  not  known. 

"The  third  was  that  of  a  watchman,  on  the  cor- 
ner of  Custom  House  and  Burgundy  street,  who 
was  found  dead  yesterday  morning,  shot  through 
the  heart.  The  deed  was  evidently  committed  on 
the  opposite  side  from  where  he  was  found,  as  the 
unfortunate  man  was  tracked  by  his  blood  across 
the  street.  In  addition  to  being  shot  through  the 
heart,  two  wounds  in  his  breast,  supposed  to 
have  been  done  with  a  Bowie  knife,  were  discov. 
ercd.  No  arrests  have  been  made  to  our  know- 
ledge." 

The  editor  of  the  "Charleston,  (S.  C.)  Mercury" 
of  April,  1S37,  makes  the  following  remarks. 

"  The  energy  of  a  Tacon  is  much  needed  to 
vivify  the  police  of  New  Orleans.  In  a  single  pa» 
per  we  find  an  account  of  the  execution  of  one 
man  for  robbery  and  intent  to  kill,  of  the  arrest  of 
another  for  stabbing  a  man  to  death  with  a  carving 
knife  ;  and  of  a  third  found  murdered  on  the 
Levee  on  the  previous  Sunday  morning.  In  the 
last  case,  although  the  murderer  was  known,  no 
steps  had  been  taken  for  his  arrest ;  and  to  crown 
the  whole,  it  is  actually  stated  in  so  many  words, 
that  the  City  guards  are  not  permitted,  according 
to  their  instructions,  to  patrol  the  Levee  after  night, 
for  fear  of  attacks  from  persons  employed  in 
steamboats  I" 

The  present  white  population  of  Louisiana  is 
but  Htde  more  than  that  of  Rhode  Island,  yet  more 
appalling  crime  is  committed  in  Louisiana  every 
day,  than  in  Rhode  Island  during  a  year,  notwith- 
standing the  tone  of  pubhc  morals  probably  is  lower 
in  the  latter  than  in  any  other  New  England 
state. 


TENNESSEE. 


Tennessee  became  one  of  the  United  States  in 
1796.  Its  present  white  population  is  about  seven 
hundred  thousand. 

The  details  which  follow,  go  to  confirm  the  old 
truth,  that  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  tends  to 
make  men  monsters.  The  following,  from  the 
'•Memphis  (Tennessee)  Enquirer,"  was  published 
m  the  Virginia  Advocate,  Jan.  26,  1838. 

"  Below  will  be  found  a  detailed  account  of  one 
of  the  most  unnatural  and  aggravated  murders  ever 
recorded.  Col.  Ward,  the  deceased,  was  a  man 
of  high  standing  in  the  state,  and  very  much  es- 
teemed  by  his  neighbors,  and  by  all  who  knew  him. 
The  brothers  concerned  in  this  '  murder,  most  foul 
and  unnatural,'  were  Lafayette,  Chamberlayne, 
Ca>sar,  and  Achilles  Jones,  (the  nephews  of  Col. 
Ward.) 


"  The  four  brothers,  all  armed,  went  to  the  resi- 
donee  of  Mr.  A.  G.  Ward,  in  Shelby  co.,  on  the 
evening  of  22d  instant.  They  were  conducted  into 
the  room  in  which  Col.  Ward  was  sitting,  together 
with  some  two  or  three  ladies,  his  intended  wife 
amongst  the  number.  Upon  their  entering  the 
room.  Col.  Ward  rose,  and  extended  his  hand  to 
Lafayette.  He  refused,  saying  he  would  shake 
hands  with  no  such  d — ■ — d  rascal.  The  rest  an- 
swered in  the  same  tone.  Col.  Ward  remarked 
that  they  were  not  in  a  proper  place  for  a  difficulty, 
if  they  sought  one.  Col.  Ward  went  from  the 
room  to  the  passage,  and  was  followed  by  the  broth- 
ers. He  said  he  was  unarmed,  but  if  they  would 
lay  down  their  arms,  he  could  whip  the  whole  of 
them  ;  or  if  they  would  place  him  on  an  ciiual  foot- 
ing, he  could  whip  the  whole  of  them  one  by  one 
Caisar  told  Chamberlayne  to  give  the  Col.  one  of  his 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


201 


pistols,  which  he  did,  and  both  went  out  into  the 
yard,  the  other  brothers  following.  While  stand- 
ing a  few  paces  from  each  other,  Lafayette  came 
up,  and  remarked  to  the  Col.,  '  If  you  spill  my 
brother's  blood,  I  will  spill  yours,'  about  which  time 
Chamberlayne's  pistol  fired,  and  immediately  La- 
fiiyectc  bursted  a  cap  at  him.  The  Colonel  turned 
to  Lafayette,  and  said,  '  Lafayette,  you  intend  to 
kill,'  and  discharged  his  pistol  at  him.  The  ball 
struck  the  pistol  of  Lafayette,  and  glanced  into  his 
arm.  Bv  thi.s  lime  Albert  Ward,  being  close  by, 
and  iiearing  the  fuss,  came  up  to  the  assistance  of 
the  Colonel,  when  a  scuffle  amongst  nil  hands  en- 
sued. The  Colonel  stumbled  and  fell  down — he 
received  several  wounds  from  a  large  bowie  knife; 
and,  after  being  stabbed,  Chamberlayne  jumped 
upon  him,  and  stamped  him  several  times.  After 
the  scuffle,  Caesar  Jones  was  seen  to  put  up  a  large 
bowie  knife.  Colonel  Ward  said  he  was  a  dead 
man.  By  the  assistance  of  Albert  Ward,  he  reached 
the  house,  distance  about  15  or  20  yards,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  expired.  On  examination  by  the  Cor- 
oner, it  appeared  that  he  had  received  several 
wounds  from  pistols  and  knives.  Albert  Ward 
was  also  badly  bruised,  not  dangerously." 

The  "  New  Orleans  Bee,"  Sept.  22,  1838,  pub- 
lished the  following  from  the  "  Nashville  (Tennes- 
see) Whig." 

"The  Nashville  Whig,  of  the  11th  ult.,  says : 
Pleasant  Watson,  of  De  Kalb  county,  and  a  Mr. 
Carmichael,  of  Alabama,  were  the  principals  in  an 
affray  at  Livingston,  Overton  county,  last  week, 
which  terminated  in  the  death  of  the  former.  Wat- 
son made  the  assault  with  a  dirk,  and  Carmichael 
defended  himself  with  a  pistol,  shooting  his  antag- 
onist through  the  body,  a  few  inches  below  the 
heart.  Watson  was  hving  at  the  last  account.  The 
dispute  grew  out  of  a  horse  race." 

The  New  Orleans  Courier,  April  7,  1837,  has 
the  following  extract  from  the  "  McMinersville 
(Tennessee)  Gazette." 

"On  Saturday,  the  8th  instant,  Colonel  David  L. 
Mitchell,  the  worthy  sheriff  of  White  county,  was 
most  barbarously  murdered  by  a  man  named  Jo- 
seph Little.  Colonel  Mitchell  had  a  civil  process 
against  Little.  He  went  to  Little's  house  for  the 
purpose  of  arresting  him.  He  found  Little  armed 
with  a  rifle,  pistols,  &c.  He  commenced  a  con- 
versation with  Little  upon  the  impropriety  of  his 
resisting,  and  stated  his  determination  to  take  him, 
at  the  same  time  slowly  advancing  upon  Little,  who 
discharged  his  rifle  at  him  without  effect.  Mitchell 
then  attempted  to  jump  in,  to  take  hold  of  him, 
when  Little  struck  him  over  the  head  with  the  bar- 
rel of  his  rifle,  and  literally  mashed  his  skull  to 
pieces ;  and,  as  he  lay  prostrate  on  the  earth.  Lit. 
lie  deliberately  pulled  a  large  pistol  from  his  belt, 
and  placing  the  muzzle  close  to  Mitchell's  head,  he 
shot  the  ball  through  it.  Little  has  made  his  es- 
cape. There  were  three  men  near  by  when  the 
murder  loas  committed,  who  made  no  attempt  to 
arrest  the  murderer." 

The  following  affray  at  Athens,  Tennessee,  is 
from  the  Mississippian,  August  10,  1838. 

"  An  unpleasant  occurrence  transpired  at  Athens 
on  Monday.  Captain  James  Byrnes  was  stabbed 
four  times,  twice  in  the  arm,  and  twice  in  the  side, 


by  A.  R.  Livingston.  The  wounds  are  said  to  be 
very  severe,  and  fears  are  entertained  of  their  prov- 
ing mortal.  The  affair  underwent  an  examination 
belbre  Sylvester  Nichols,  Esq.,  by  whom  Living- 
ston was  let  to  bail." 

The  "  West  Tennessean,"  Aug.  4,  1837,  says — 

"  A  duel  was  fought  at  Calhoun,  Tenn.,  between 
G.  W.  Carter  and  J.  C.  Sherley.  They  used  yau- 
gers  at  the  distance  of  20  yards.  The  former  was 
slightly  wounded,  and  the  latter  quite  danger- 
ously." 

June  23d,  1838,  Benjamin  Shipley,  of  Hamilton 
CO.,  Tennessee,  shot  Archibald  McCallie.  (Nash- 
tille  Banner,  July  16,  1838.) 

June  23d,  1838,  Levi  Stunston,  of  Weakly  co., 
Tennessee,  killed  William  Price,  of  said  county, 
in  an  affray.     (Nashville  Banner,  July  6,  1838.) 

October  8,  1838,  in  an  affray  at  Wolf's  Ferry, 
Tennessee,  Martin  Farley,  Senior,  was  killed  by 
John  and  Solomon  Step.  {Georgia  Telegraph, 
Nov.  6,  1838.) 

Feb.  14,  1838,  John  Manie  was  killed  by  Wil- 
liam Doss  at  Decatur,  Tennessee.  {Memphis  Ga. 
zette.  May  15,  1838.) 

"  From  the  Nashville  Whig." 

"  Fatal  Affray  in  Columbia,  Tenn. — A  fatal 
street  encounter  occurred  at  that  place,  on  the  3d 
inst.,  between  Richard  H.  Hays,  attorney  at  law, 
and  Wm.  Polk,  brother  to  the  Hon.  Jas.  K.  Polk. 
The  parties  met,  armed  with  pistols,  and  exchanged 
shots  simultaneously.  A  buck-shot  pierced  the 
brain  of  Hays,  and  he  died  early  the  next  morn- 
ing. The  quarrel  grew^  out  of  a  sportive  remark 
of  Hays',  at  dinner,  at  the  Columbia  Inn,  for  which 
he  offered  an  apology,  not  accepted,  it  seems,  as 
Polk  went  to  Hays'  ofiice,  the  same  evening,  and 
chastised  him  with  a  whip.  This  occurred  on  Fri- 
day, the  fatal  result  took  place  on  Monday." 

In  a  fight  near  Memphis,  Tennessee,  May  15, 
1837,  Mr.  Jackson,  of  that  place,  shot  through  the 
heart  Mr.  W.  F.  Gholson,  son  of  the  late  Mr. 
Gholson,  of  Virginia.  {Raleigh  Register,  June 
13,  1837.) 

The  following  horrible  outrage,  committed  in 
West  Tennessee,  not  far  from  Randolph,  was  pub- 
lished by  the  Georgetown  (S.  C.)  Union,  May  26, 
1837,  from  the  Louisville  Journal. 

"  A  feeble  bodied  man  settled  a  few  years  ago 
on  the  Mississippi,  a  short  distance  below  Ran. 
dolph,  on  the  Tennessee  side.  He  succeeded  in 
amassing  property  to  the  value  of  about  $14,000, 
and,  like  most  of  the  settlers,  made  a  business  of 
selling  wood  to  the  boats.  This  he  sold  at  $2  50 
a  cord,  while  his  neighbors  asked  $3.  One  of  them 
came  to  remonstrate  against  his  underselling,  and 
had  a  fight  with  his  brother-in-law  Clark,  in  which 
he  was  beaten.  He  then  went  and  obtained  legal 
process  against  Clark,  and  returned  with  a  deputy 
sheriff',  attended  by  a  posse  of  desperate  villains. 
When  they  arrived  at  Clark's  house,  he  was  seated 
among  his  children — they  put  two  or  three  balls 
through  his  body.  Clark  ran,  was  overtaken  and 
knocked  down  ;  in  the  midst  of  his  cries  for  mer. 
cy,  one  of  the  villains  fired  a  pistol  in  his  mouth 


202 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


Killing  him  instantly.  They  then  required  the  set- 
tler to  sell  his  property  to  them,  and  leave  the 
country.  He,  fearing  that  they  would  otherwise 
take  his  life,  sold  them  his  valuable  property  for 
$300,  and  departed  with  his  family.  The  sheriff 
was  one  of  the  purchasers." 

The  Baltimore  American,  Feb.  8,  183S,  publish- 
es the  following  from  the  Nashville  (Tennessee) 
Banner : 

"A  most  atrocious  nmrder  was  commitled  a  few 
days  ago  at  Lagrange,  in  this  state,  on  the  body  of 
Mr.  .Tohn  T.  Foster,  a  respectable  merchant  of  that 
town.  The  perpetrators  of  this  bloody  act  are  E. 
Moody,  Thomas  Moody,  J.  E.  Douglass,  W.  R. 
Harris,  and  W.  C.  Harris.  The  circumstances  at- 
tending this  horrible  aflair,  are  the  following: — On 
tiie  night  previous  to  the  murder,  a  gang  of  villains, 
under  jiretence  of  wishing  to  purchase  goods,  en- 
tered Mr.  Foster's  store,  took  him  by  force,  and 
rode  him  through  the  streets  on  a  rail.  The  next 
morning,  Mr.  F.  met  one  of  the  party,  and  gave 
him  a  caning.  For  this  just  retaliation  for  the  out- 
rage which  had  been  committed  on  his  person,  he 
v.-as  pursued  by  the  persons  above  named,  while 
taking  a  walk  with  a  friend,  and  murdered  in  the 
open  face  of  day." 

The  following  presentment  of  a  Tennessee  Grand 
Jury,  sufficiently  explains  and  comments  on  itself: 

The  Grand  Jurors  empanelled  to  inquire  for  the 
county  of  Shelby,  would  separate  without  having 
discharged  their  duties,  if  they  were  to  omit  to  no- 
tice public  evils  which  they  have  found  their  pow- 
ers inadequate  to  put  in  train  for  punishment.  The 
evils  referred  to  exist  more  particularly  in  the  town 
of  Memphis. 

The  audacity  and  frequency  with  which  outrages 
are  committed,  forbid  us,  in  justice  to  our  con- 
sciences, to  omit  to  use  the  powers  we  possess,  to 


bring  them  to  the  severe  action  of  the  law ;  ana 
when  we  find  our  powers  inadequate,  to  draw  upon 
them  public  attention,  and  the  rebuke  of  the  good. 

An  infamous  female  publicly  and  grossly  assault3 
a  lady ;  therefore  a  public  meeting  is  called,  the 
mayor  of  the  town  is  placed  in  the  chair,  resolutions 
are  adopted,  providing  for  the  summary  and  law. 
less  punishment  of  the  wretched  woman.  In  the 
progress  of  the  affair,  hundreds  of  citizens  aspem- 
ble  at  her  house,  and  raze  it  to  the  ground.  The 
unfortunate  creature,  toge'.her  with  two  or  three 
men  of  like  character,  are  committed,  in  an  open 
canoe  or  boat,  without  oar  or  paddle,  to  the  middle 
of  the  Mississippi  river. 

Such  is  a  concise  outline  of  the  leading  incidents 
of  a  recent  transaction  in  Memphis.  It  might  be 
filled  up  by  the  detail  of  individual  exploits,  which 
would  give  vivacity  to  the  description  ;  but  we  for 
bear  to  mention  them.  We  leave  it  to  others  to 
admire  the  manliness  of  the  transaction,  and  the 
courage  displayed  by  a  mob  of  hundreds,  in  the 
various  outrages  upon  the  persons  and  property  of 
three  or  four  individuals  who  fell  under  its  ven- 
geance. 

The  present  white  population  of  Tennessee  is 
about  the  same  with  that  of  Massachusetts,  and  yet 
more  outbreaking  crimes  are  committed  in  Ten- 
nessee in  a  single  month,  than  in  Massachusetts 
during  a  whole  year;  and  this,  too,  notwithstand- 
ing the  largest  town  in  Tennessee  has  but  six  thou- 
sand inhabitants  ;  \vhereas,  in  Massachusetts,  be- 
sides one  of  eighty  thousand,  and  two  others  of 
nearly  twenty  thousand  each,  there  are  at  least  a 
dozen  larger  than  the  chief  town  in  Tennessee, 
which  gives  to  the  latter  state  an  important  advan- 
tage on  the  score  of  morality,  the  country  being  8«» 
much  more  favorable  to  it  than  large  towns. 


KENTUCKY. 


Kentucky  has  been  one  of  the  United  States  since 
1792.  Its  present  white  population  is  but  six 
hundred  thousand. 

The  details  which  follow  show  still  further  that 
those  who  unite  to  plunder  of  their  rights  one 
class  of  human  beings,  regard  as  sacred  the  rights 
of  no  class. 

The  following  affair  at  Maysville,  Kentucky,  is 
extracted  from  the  Maryland  Republican,  January 
30,  1838. 

"  A  fight  came  off  at  Maysville,  Ky.  on  the  29th 
idtimo,  in  which  a  Mr.  Coulster  was  stabbed  in  the 
eide  aud  is  dead  ;  a  Mr.  Gibson  was  well  hacked 
with  a  knife  ;  a  Mr.  Farris  was  dangerously 
wounded  in  the  head,  and  another  of  the  same 
name  in  the  hip;  a  Mr.  Shoemaker  was  severely 
beaten,  and  several  others  seriously  hurt  in  various 
ways." 

The  following  is  extracted  from  the  N.  C.  Stan- 
dard. 

"  A  most  bloody  and  shocking  transaction  took 
place  in  the  little  town  of  Clinton,  Hickman  co.  Ken. 
The   circumstances    are   briefly   as  follows  :     A 


special  canvass  for  a  representative  from  the 
county  of  Hickman,  had  for  some  time  been  in 
progress.  A  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Binford 
was  a  candidate.  The  Slate  Senator  from  the 
district,  Judge  James,  took  some  exceptions  to  the 
reputation  of  Binford,  and  intimated  that  if  B. 
should  be  elected,  he  (James)  would  resign  rather 
than  serve  with  such  a  colleague.  Hearing  this, 
Binford  went  to  the  house  of  James  to  demand  an 
explanation.  Mrs.  James  remarked,  in  a  jest  as 
Binford  thought,  that  if  she  was  in  the  place  of  her 
husband  she  would  resign  her  seat  in  the  Senate, 
and  not  serve  with  such  a  character.  B.  told  her 
that  she  was  a  woman,  and  could  say  what  she 
pleased.  She  replied  that  she  was  not  in  earnest. 
James  then  looked  B.  in  the  face  and  said  that,  if 
his  wife  said  so,  it  was  the  fact — '  he  was  an  in- 
famous scoundrel  and  d — d  rascal.'  He  asked  B. 
if  he  was  armed,  and  on  being  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  he  stepped  into  an  adjoining  room  to 
arm  himself  He  was  prevented  by  the  family  from 
returning,  and  Binford  walked  out.  J.  then  told 
him  from  his  piazza,  that  he  would  meet  him  next 
day  in  Clinton. 

True  to  their  appointment,  the  enraged  parties 
met  on  the  streets  the  following  day.     James  shot 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


203 


first,  his  ball  passing  through  his  antagonist's  hver, 
■R'hose  pistol  fired  immediately  afterwards,  and 
missing  J.,  the  ball  pierced  the  head  of  a  stranger 
by  the  name  of  Collins,  who  instantly  fell  and 
expired.  After  being  shot,  Binford  sprang  upon  J. 
with  the  fury  of  a  wounded  tiger,  and  would  have 
taken  his  life  but  for  a  second  shot  received  through 
the  back  from  Bartin  James,  the  brother  of 
Thomas.  Even  after  he  received  the  last  fatal 
wound  he  struggled  with  his  antagonist  until  death 
relaxed  his  grasp,  and  he  fell  with  the  horrid  ex- 
clamation, '  I  am  a  dead  man  ." 

"  Judge  James  gave  himself  up  to  the  authorities  ; 
and  when  the  informant  of  the  editor  left  GHnton, 
Bhiford,  and  the  unfortunate  stranger  lay  shrouded 
corpses  to{<ether." 

The  "N.  O.  Bee"  thus  gives  the  conclusion  of  the 
matter: 

"  Judge    James    was    tried    and    acquitted,    the 
death  of^Biuford  being  regarded  as  an  act  of  justi- 
fiable homicide." 
From  the  "Flemingsburg  Kentuckian,"  June  2 J,  '38. 

Affray. — Thomas  Binford,  of  Hickman  coun- 
ty, Kentucky,  recently  attacked  a  Mr.  Gardner  of 
Dresden,  with  a  drawn  knife,  and  cut  his  face 
pretty  badly.  Gardner  picked  up  a  piece  of  iron 
and  gave  him  a  side-wipe  above  the  ear  that  brought 
him  to  terms.  The  skull  was  fractured  about  two 
inches.  Binford's  brother  was  killed  at  Clinton, 
Kentucky,  last  fall  by  Judge  James. 

The  "  Red  River  Whig"  of  September  15,  1838, 
says  : — "  A  ruffian  of  the  name  of  Charles  Gibson, 
attempted  to  murder  a  girl  named  Mary  Green,  of 
Louisville,  Ky.  on  the  23d  ult.  He  cut  her  in  six 
different  places  with  a  Bowie  knife.  His  object,  as 
stated  in  a  subsequent  investigation  before  the 
Police  Court,  was  to  cut  her  throat,  which  she 
prevented  by  throwing  up  her  arms." 

From  the  "  Louisville  Advertiser,"  Dec.  17th, 
1838  : — "  A  startling  tragedy  occurred  in  this  city 
on  Saturday  evening  last,  in  which  A.  H.  Meeks 
was  instantly  killed,  John  Rothwell  mortally 
wounded,  William  Holmes  severely  wounded,  and 
Henry  Oldham  slightly,  by  the  use  of  Bowie 
knives,  by  Judge  E.  C.  Wilkinson,  and  his  brother, 
B.  R.  Wilkinson,  of  Natchez,  and  J.  Murdough, 
of  Holly  Springs,  Mississippi.  It  seems  that  Judge 
Wilkinson  had  ordered  a  coat  at  the  shop  of  Messrs. 
Varnum  &  Redding.  The  coat  was  made  ;  the 
Judge,  accompanied  by  his  brother  and  Mr.  Mur- 
dough, went  to  the  shop  of  Varnum  &.  Redding, 
tried  on  the  coat,  and  was  irritated  because,  as  he 
believed,  it  did  not  fit  him.  Mr.  Redding  under- 
took to  convince  him  that  he  was  in  error,  and 
ventured  to  assure  the  Judge  that  the  coat  was  well 
made.  The  Judge  instantly  seized  an  iron  poker, 
and  commenced  an  attack  on  Redding.  The 
blow  with  the  poker  was  partially  warded  off — 
Redding  grappled  his  assailant,  when  a  companion 
of  the  Judge  drew  a  Bowie  knife,  and,  but  for  the 
interposition  and  interference  of  the  unfortunate 
Meeks,  a  journeyman  tailor,  and  a  gentleman  pas- 
smg  by  at  the  moment,  Redding  might  have  been 
assassinated  in  his  own  shop.  Shortly  afterwards. 
Redding,  Meeks,  Rothwell,  and  Holmes  went  to 
tne  Gait  House.  They  sent  up  stairs  for  Judge 
Wilkinson,  and  he  came  down  into  the  bar  room, 


when  angry  words  were  passed.  The  Judge  went 
up  stairs  again,  and  in  a  short  time  returned  with  his 
companions,  all  armed  with  knives.  Harsh  Ian 
guage  was  again  used.  Meeks,  felt  called  on  to 
state  what  he  had  seen  of  the  conflict,  and  did  so, 
and  Murdough  gave  him  the  d— d  lie,  for  which 
Meeks  struck  him.  On  receiving  the  blow  with  the 
whip,  Murdough  instanilv  plunged  his  Bowie  knife 
into  the  abdomen  of  Meeks,  and  killed  him  on  the 
spot. 

"  At  the  same  instant  B.  R.  Wilkinson  attempted 
to  get  at  Redding,  and  Holmes  and  Rothwell  inter- 
fered, or  joined  in  the  affray.  Holmes  was 
woundt-d,  probably  by  B.  R.  Wilkinson  ;  and  the 
Judge,  having  left  the  room  for  an  instant,  returned, 
and  finding  Rothwell  contending  with  his  brother, 
or  bending  over  him,  he  (the  Judge)  stabbed 
Rothwell  in  the  back,  and  inflicted  a  mortal 
wound." 

Judge  Wilkinson,  his  brother,  and  J.  Murdough, 
have  been  recently  tried  and  acquitted. 
From   the  "New  Orleans  Bee,"  Sept.  27,  1838. 

"  It  appears  from  the  statement  of  the  Lex- 
ington Intelligencer,  that  there  has  been  for  some 
time  past,  an  enmity  between  the  drivers  of 
the  old  and  opposition  lines  of  stages  running  from 
that  city.  On  the  evening  of  the  13th  an  encoun- 
ter took  place  at  the  Circus  between  two  of  them, 
Powell  and  Cameron,  and  the  latter  was  so  much 
injured  that  his  life  was  in  imminent  danger. 
About  12  o'clock  the  same  night,  several  drivers  ol 
Mio  old  line  rushed  into  Keizer's  Hotel,  where 
Powell  and  other  drivers  of  the  opposition-line 
boarded,  and  a  general  melee  took  place,  in  the 
course  of  which  several  pistols  were  discharged, 
the  ball  of  one  of  them  passing  through  the  head 
of  Crabsler,  an  old  line  driver,  and  killing  him  on 
the  spot.  Crabsfer,  before  he  was  shot,  had  dis- 
charged his  own  pistol  which  had  burst  into  frag- 
ments. Two  or  three  drivers  of  the  opposition 
were  wounded  with  buck  shot,  but  not  dan- 
gerously." 

The  "  Mobile  Advertiser"  of  September  15,  |838, 
copies  the  following  from  the  Louisville  (Ky.) 
Journal. 

"A  Mr.  Campbell  was  killed  in  Henderson 
county  on  the  31st  ult.  by  a  Mr.  Harrison.  It  ap- 
pears, that  there  was  an  affray  between  the  parties 
some  months  ago,  and  that  Harrison  subsequentl)- 
left  home  and  returned  on  the  3Ist  in  a  tradinif 
boat.  Campbell  met  him  at  the  boat  with  a  loaded 
rifle  and  declared  his  determination  to  kill  him,  at 
the  same  time  asking  him  whether  he  had  a  rifle 
and  expressing  a  desire  to  give  him  a  fair  chance. 
Harrison  affected  to  laugh  at  the  whole  matter  and 
invited  Campbell  into  his  boat  to  take  a  drink  with 
him.  Campbell  accepted  the  invitation,  but,  while 
he  was  in  the  act  of  drinking,  Harrison  seized  his 
rifle,  fired  it  off,  and  laid  Campbell  dead  by  striking 
him  with  the  barrel  of  it." 

The  "  Missouri  Republican"  of  .Tuly  29,  1837, 
published  the  details  which  follow  from  the  Louis- 
ville Journal. 

Mount  Sterling,  Ky.  July  20,  1837. 

"  Gentlemen  : — A  most  unfortunate  and  fatal 
occurrence  transpired  in  our  town  last  evening, 
about  6  o'clock.     Some  of  the   most  prominent 


iQi 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


tiicnds  of  Judge  French  had  a  meeting  yesterday 
at  Lol.  Young's,  near  this  place,  and  warm  words 
ensued  between  Mr.  Albert  Thomas  and  Belvard 
Peters,  Esq.,  and  a  few  blows  were  exchanged, 
and  several  of  the  friends  of  each  collected  at  the 
spot.  Whilst  the  parties  were  thus  engaged.  Mr. 
Wm.  White,  who  was  a  friend  of  Mr.  Peters, 
struck  Mr.  Thomas,  whereupon  B.  F.  Thomas 
Esq.  engaged  in  the  combat  on  the  side  of  his 
brother  and  Mr.  W.  Roberts  on  the  part  of  Peters 
— Mr.  G.  W.  Thomas  taking  pari  with  his  brothers. 
Albert  Thomas  had  Peters  down  and  was  taken 
ofT  by  a  gentleman  present,  and  whilst  held  by 
that  gentleman,  he  was  struck  by  White  ;  and  B. 
F.  Thomas  having  made  some  remark  White 
struck  him.  B.  F.  Thomas  returned  the  blow,  and 
having  a  large  knife,  stabbed  White,  who  never. 
theless  continued  the  contest,  and,  it  is  said,  broke 
Thomas's  arm  with  a  rock  of  a  chair.  Thomas 
then  inflicted  some  other  stabs,  of  which  White 
died  in  a  few  minutes.  Roberts  was  knocked 
down  twice  by  Albert  Thomas,  and,  I  believe,  is 
much  hurt.  G.  W.  Thomas  was  somewhat  hurt 
also.  White  and  B.  F.  Thomas  had  always  been 
on  fi-iendly  terms.  You  are  acquainted  with  the 
Messrs.  Thomas.  Mr.  White  was  a  much  larger 
man  than  either  of  them,  weighing  nearly  200 
pounds,  and  in  the  prime  of  life.  As  you  may 
very  naturally  suppose,  great  excitement  prevails 
here,  and  Mr.  B.  F.  Thomas  regrets  the  fatal  ca- 
tastrophe as  much  as  any  one  else,  but  believes 
from  all  the  circumstances  that  he  was  juslifiaWe 
in  what  he  did,  although  he  would  he  as  far  from 
doing  such  an  act  when  cool  and  deliberate  as  any 
man  whatever. 

The  "  New  Orleans  Bulletin"  of  Aug.  24,  1838, 
extracts  the  following  from  the  Louisville  Journal. 

"News  has  just  reached  us,  that  Thomas  P. 
Moore,  attacked  the  Senior  Editor  of  this  paper  in 
the  yard  of  the  Harrodsburg  Springs.  Mr.  Moore 
advanced  upon  Mr.  Prentice  with  a  drawn  pistol 
and  fired  at  him  ;  Mr.  Prentice  then  fired,  neither 
shot  taking  effect.  Mr.  Prentice  drew  a  second 
pistol,  when  Mr.  Moore  quailed  and  said  he  had 
no  other  arms  ;  whereupon  Mr.  Prentice  from  su. 
perabundant  magnanimity  spared  the  miscreant's 
life." 

From  "  The  Floridian"  of  June  10,  1837. 
Murder.     Mr.  Gillespie,   a  respectable   citizen 
aged  50,  was  murdered  a  few  days  since  by  a  Mr. 
Arnett,  near  Mumfordsville,  Ky.,  which  latter  shot 
his  victim  twice  with  a  rifle. 

The  "Augusta  (Ga.)  Sentinel,"  May  11,  1838, 
has  the  following  account  of  murders  in  Kentucky  : 

"  At  Mill's  Point,  Kentucky,  Dr.  Thomas  Rivers 
was  Khot  one  day  last  week,  from  out  of  a  window, 
by  Lawyer  Ferguson,  both  citizens  of  that  place, 
and  both  parties  are  represented  to  have  stood  high 
in  the  estimation  of  the  community  in  which  .they 
Kved.  The  difficulty  we  understand  to  have  grown 
^out  of  a  law  suit  at  issue  between  them. 

Just  as  our  paper  was  going  to  press,  we  learn 
that  the  brother  of  Dr.  Rivers,  who  had  been  sent 
for,  had  arrived,  and  immediately  shot  Lawyer 
Ferguson.  He  at  first  shot  him  with  a  shot  gun, 
upon  his  retreat,  which  did  not  prove  fatal ;  he  then 


approached  him  immediately  with  a  pistol,  and  kill- 
ed  him  on  the  spot." 

The  Right  Rev.  B.  B.  Smith,  Bishop  of  the  Epis- 
copal  diocese  of  Kentucky,  published  about  two 
years  since  an  article  in  the  Lexington  (Ky.)  In- 
telligencer,  entitled  "  Thoughts  on  the  frequency 
of  homicides  in  the  state  of  Kentucky."  We  con- 
clude this  head  with  a  brief  extract  from  the  testi- 
mony  of  the  Bishop,  contained  in  that  article. 

"  The  writer  has  never  conversed  with  a  traveled 
and  enlightened  European  or  eastern  man,  who  has 
not  expressed  the  most  undisguised  horror  at  the 
frequency  of  homicide  and  murder  within  our 
bounds,  and  at  the  ease  with  which  the  homicide 
escapes  from  punishment. 

"  As  to  the  frequency  of  these  shocking  occur- 
rences, the  writer  has  some  opportunity  of  being 
correctly  impressed,  by  means  of  a  yearly  tour 
through  many  counties  of  the  State.  He  has  also 
been  particular  in  making  inquiries  of  our  most  dis- 
'i.'iguished  legal  and  political  characters,  and  from 
some  has  derived  conjectural  estimates  which  were 
truly  alarming.  A  few  have  been  of  the  opinion, 
that  on  an  average  one  murder  a  year  may  be 
charged  to  the  account  of  every  county  in  the  state, 
making  the  frightful  aggregate  of  850  human  lives 
sacrificed  to  revenge,  or  the  victims  of  momentary 
passion,  in  the  course  of  every  ten  years. 

"  Others  have  placed  the  estimate  much  lower, 
and  have  thought  that  thirty  for  the  whole  state, 
every  year,  would  be  found  much  nearer  the  truth. 
An  attempt  has  been  made  lately  to  obtain  data 
more  satisfactory  than  conjecture,  and  circulars 
have  been  addressed  to  the  clerks  of  most  of  the 
counties,  in  order  to  arrive  at  as  correct  an  estimate 
as  possible  of  the  actual  number  of  homicides  du- 
ring  the  three  years  last  past.  It  will  be  seen,  how- 
ever, that  statistics  thus  obtained,  even  from  every 
county  in  the  state,  would  necessarily  be  imper- 
fect, inasmuch  as  the  records  of  the  courts  by  no 
means  show  all  the  cases  which  occur,  some  esca- 
ping  without  any  of  the  forms  of  a  legal  examina- 
tion, and  there  being  many  affrays  which  end  only 
in  wounds,  or  where  the  parties  are  separated. 

"  From  these  returns,  it  appears  that  in  27  coun. 
ties  there  have  been,  within  the  last  three  years,  of 
homicides  of  every  grade,  35,  but  only  8  convic- 
tions in  the  same  period,  leaving  27  cases  which 
have  passed  wholly  unpunished.  During  the  same 
period  there  have  been  from  eighty-five  counties, 
only  eleven  commitments  to  the  state  prison,  nine 
for  manslaughter,  and  two  for  shooting  with  intent 
to  kill,  and  not  an  instance  of  capital  punishment 
in  the  person  of  any  white  offender.  Thus  an 
approximation  is  made  to  a  general  average,  which 
probably  would  not  vary  much  from  one  in  each 
county  every  three  years,  or  about  280  in  ten  years, 

"  It  is  believed  that  such  a  register  of  crime 
amongst  a  people  professing  the  protestant  religion 
and  speaking  the  English  language,  is  not  to  be 
found,  with  regard  to  any  three-quarters  of  a  mil- 
lion  of  people,  since  the  downfall  of  the  feudal  sys. 
tem.  Compared  with  the  records  of  crime  in 
Scotland,  or  the  eastern  states,  the  results  are  ab- 
solutely SHOCKING !  It  is  believed  there  are  more 
homicides,  on  an  average  of  two  years,  in  any  of 
our  more  populous  counties,  than  in  the  whole  of 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


205 


$€veral  of  our  states,  of  equal  or  nearly  equal 
white  population  with  Kentucky. 

"  The  victims  of  these  affrays  are  not  always,  by 
any  means,  the  most  worthless  of  our  population. 

"  It  too  often  happens  that  the  enlightened  citizen, 
the  elevated  lawyer,  the  affectionate  husband,  and 
precious  father,  are  thus  instantaneously  taken 
from  their  useful  stations  on  earth,  and  hurried,  all 
unprepared,  to  their  final  account ! 

"  The  question  is  again  asked,  what  could  have 
brought  about,  and  can  perpetuate,  this  shocking 
state  of  things  ? " 

As  an  illustration  of  the  recklessness  of  life  in 
Kentucky,  and  the  terrible  paralysis  of  public  sen. 
timent,  the  bisliop  states  the  following  fact. 

"  A  case  of  shocking  homicide  is  remembered, 
where  the  guilty  person  was  acquitted  by  a  sort  of 
acclamation,  and  the  next  day  was  seen  in  public, 
with  two  ladies  hanging  on  his  arm  I " 

Notwithstanding  the  frightful  frequency  of  dead- 
ly affrays  in  Kentucky,  as  is  certified  by  the  above 
testimony  of  Bishop  Smith,  there  are  fewer,  in  pro. 
portion  to  the  white  population,  than  in  any  of  the 
states  which  have  passed  under  review,  unless 
Tennessee  may  be  an  exception.  The  present 
w-hite  population  of  Kentucky  is  perhaps  seventy 
thousand  more  than  that  of  Maine,  and  yet  more 
public  fatal  affrays  have  taken  place  in  the  former, 
within  the  last  six  months,  than  in  the  latter  during 
its  entire  existence  as  a  state. 

The  seven  slave  states  which  we  have  already 
passed  under  review,  are  just  one  half  of  the  slave 
states  and  territories,  included  in  the  American 
Union.  Before  proceeding  to  consider  the  condi- 
tion of  society  in  the  other  slave  states,  we  pause 
a  moment  to  review  the  ground  already  traversed. 

The  present  entire  white  population  of  the 
states  already  considered,  is  about  two  and  a 
quarter  millions ;  just  about  equal  to  the  present 
white  population  of  the  state  of  New  York.  If 
the  amount  of  crime  resulting  in  loss  of  hfe,  which 
is  perpetrated  by  the  white  population  of  those 
states  upon  the  whites  alone,  be  contrasted  with 
the  amount  perpetrated  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
by  all  classes,  upon  all,  we  believe  it  will  be 
found,  that  more  of  such  crimes  have  been  com- 
mitted in  these  states  within  the  last  18  months, 
than  have  occurred  in  the  state  of  New  York  for 
half  a  century.  But  perhaps  we  shall  be  told  that 
in  these  seven  states,  there  are  scores  of  cities  and 
large  towns,  and  that  a  majority  of  all  these  deadly 
affrays,  &c.,  take  place  in  them;  to  this  we  reply, 
that  there  are  three  times  as  many  cities  and  large 
towns  in  the  state  of  New  York,  as  in  all  those 
states  together,  and  that  nearly  all  the  capital 
crimes  perpetrated  in  the  state  take  place  in  these 
cities  and  large  villages.  In  the  state  of  New 
York,  there  are  more  than  half  amillion  of  persons 
who  live  in  cities  and  villages  of  more  than  two 
thousand  inhabitants,  whereas  in  Kentucky,  Ten- 


nessee, Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkan- 
sas and  Missouri,  there  are  on  the  largest  compu- 
tation not  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  per- 
sons, residing  in  cities  and  villages  of  more  than 
two  thousand  inhabitants,  and  the  while  popula- 
tion of  these  places  (which  alone  is  included  in 
the  estimate  of  crime,  and  that  too  inflicted  upon 
whites  only,)  is  probably  not  more  than  sixty.five 
thousand. 

But  it  will  doubtless  he  pleaded  in  mitigation, 
that  the  cities  and  large  villages  in  those  states  are 
new;  that  they  have  not  had  sufficient  time  tho- 
roughly  to  organize  their  police,  so  as  to  make  it 
an  etTectual  terror  to  evil  doers ;  and  further,  that 
the  rapid  growth  of  those  places  has  so  overloaded 
the  authorities  with  all  sorts  of  responsibilities,  that 
due  attention  to  the  preservation  of  the  pubhc 
peace  has  been  nearly  impossible  ;  and  besides, 
they  have  had  no  official  experience  to  draw  upon, 
as  in  the  older  cities,  the  offices  being  generally 
filled  by  young  men,  as  a  necessary  consequence 
of  the  newness  of  the  country,  &c.  To  this  we 
reply,  that  New  Orleans  is  more  than  a  century 
old,  and  for  half  that  period  has  been  the  centre 
of  a  great  trade  ;  that  St.  Louis,  Natchez,  Mobile, 
Nashville,  Louisville  and  Lexington,  are  all  half  a 
century  old,  and  each  had  arrived  at  years  of  dis- 
cretion, while  yet  the  sites  of  Buffalo,  Rochester, 
Lockport,  Canandaigua,  Geneva,  Auburn,  Ithaca, 
Oswego,  Syracuse,  and  other  large  towns  in  Wes- 
tern New- York,  were  a  wilderness.  Further,  as 
a  number  of  these  places  are  larger  than  cither 
of  the  former,  their  growth  must  have  been  more 
rapid,  and,  consequently,  they  must  have  encoun- 
tered still  greater  obstacles  in  the  organization  of 
an  efficient  pohce  than  those  south  western  cities, 
with  this  exception,  they  avere  not  settled  by 

SLAVEHOLDERS. 

The  absurdity  of  assigning  the  newness  of  the 
country,  the  unrestrained  habits  of  pioneer  settlers, 
the  recklessness  of  life  engendered  by  wars  with 
the  Indians,  &c.,  as  reasons  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  frightful  amount  of  crime  in  the  states  un- 
der review,  is  manifest  from  the  fact,  that  Vermont 
is  of  the  same  age  with  Kentucky  ;  Ohio,  ten  years 
younger  than  Kentucky,  and  six  years  younger 
than  Tennessee  ;  Indiana,  five  years  younger  than 
Louisiana  ;  Ilhnois,  one  year  younger  than  Missis- 
sippi ;  Maine,  of  the  same  age  with  Missouri,  and 
two  years  younger  than  Alabama  ;  and  INIichigan 
of  the  same  age  with  Arkansas.  Now,  let  any 
one  contrast  the  state  of  society  in  Maine,  Vermont, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Michigan  with  that  of 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Missouri,  Louisi. 
ana,  Arkansas,  and  Mississippi,  and  candidly  pon- 
der the  result.  It  is  impossible  satisfactorily  to  ac- 
count for  the  immense  disparity  in  crime,  on  any 
other  supposition  than  that  the  latter  states  were 
settled   and  are  inhabited  almost  exclusively  by 


206 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


those  who  carried  with  them  the  violence,  impa. 
tience  of  legal  restraint,  love  of  domination,  fiery 
passions,  idleness,  and  contempt  of  laborious  indus 
try,  which  are  engendered  by  habits  of  despotic 
sway,  acquired  by  residence  in  communities  where 
8uch  manners,  habits  and  passions,  mould  society 
into  their  own  image.*  The  practical  workings  of 
this  cause  are  powerfully  illustrated  in  those  parts 
of  the  slave  states  where  slaves  abound,  when  con- 
trasted with  those  where  very  few  are  held.  Who 
docs  not  know  that  there  are  fewer  deadly  affrays 
in  proportion  to  the  white  population — that  law 
has  more  sway  and  that  human  life  is  less  insecure 
in  East  Tennessee,  where  there  are  very  few  slaves, 
than  in  West  Tennessee,  where  there  are  large 
numbers.  This  is  true  also  of  northern  and  wes- 
tern Virginia,  where  few  slaves  are  held,  when  con- 
trasted with  eastern  Virginia,  where  they  abound  ; 
the  same  remark  applies  to  those  parts  of  Kentucky 
and  Missouri,  where  large  numbers  of  slaves  are 
held,  when  contrasted  with  others  where  there  are 
comparatively  few. 

We  see  the  same  cause  operating  to  a  considera- 
ble extent  in  those  parts  of  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illi- 
nois, settled  mainly  by  slaveholders  and  others,  who 
were  natives  of  slave  states,  in  contrast  with  other 
parts  of  these  states  settled  almost  exclusively 
by  persons  from  free  states ;  that  affrays  and 
breaches  of  the  peace  are  far  more  frequent  in  the 
former  than  in  the  latter,  is  well  known  to  all. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  remaining  slave  states. 
Those  that  have  not  yet  been  considered,  are 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  the  territory  of  Florida. 
As  Delaware  has  hardly  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred slaves,  arbitrary  power  over  human  beings  is 
exercised  by  so  few  persons,  that  the  turbulence 
infused   thereby  into  the  public  mind  is  but  an  in- 

*  Bishop  Smith  of  Kentucky,  in  his  testimony  respect- 
ing homicides,  whicli  is  quoted  on  a  preceding  page,  thus 
ppeaks  of  the  influence  of  slave-holding,  as  an  exciting 
cause. 

"  Are  not  some  of  the  indirect  influencesofasystem,  the 
existence  of  which  amongst  us  can  never  be  sufficiently 
lieplored,  discoverable  in  these  affrays?  Are  not  our 
young  men  more  heady,  violent  and  imperions  in  conse- 
quence of  their  early  habits  of  command  ?  And  are  not 
our  taverns  and  other  public  places  of  resort,  much  more 
crowded  with  an  inlJammable  material,  than  if  young  men 
were  brought  up  in  the  staid  and  frugal  habits  of  those 
who  are  constrained  to  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of 
their  brow  ?  *  *  *  Is  not  intemperance  more  so- 
cial, more  inflammatory,  more  pugnacious  where  a  fan- 
cied superiority  of  gentlemanly  character  is  fell,  in  con- 
sequence of  exemption  from  severe  manual  labor  .'  Is 
there  ever  stabbing  where  there  is  not  idleness  and  strong 
drink  ?" 

The  Bishop  also  gives  the  following  as  another  exciting 
cause  ;  it  is  however  only  the  product  of  the  preceding. 

"  Has  not  a  public  sentiment  which  we  hear  charac- 
terized as  singularly  high-minded  and  honorable,  and 
sensitively  alive  to  every  affront,  whether  real  or  ima- 
ginary, but  which  strangers  denominate  rough  and  fero- 
cious, much  to  do  in  provoking  these  assaults,  and  then  in 
applauding  instead  of  punishing  the  offender." 

The  Bishop  says  of  the  young  men  of  Kentucky,  that 
they  '"grow  up  proud,  impetuous,  and  reckless  of  all 
responsibility  ;"  and  adds,  that  the  practice  of  carrying 
Bcadly  weapons  is  with  them  "  nearly  univehjal." 


considerable  element,  quite  insufficient  to  inflame 
the  passions,  much  less  to  cast  the  character  of  the 
mass  of  the  people  ;  consequently,  the  state  of  so- 
ciety there,  and  the  general  security  of  life  is  but 
little  less  than  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvaniji, 
upon  which  states  it  borders  on  the  north  and  east. 
The  same  causes  operate  in  a  considerable  mea- 
sure, though  to  a  much  less  extent,  in  Maryland 
and  in  Northern  and  Western  Virginia.  l5ut  in 
lower  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia 
and  Florida,  the  general  state  of  society  as  it  re- 
spects  the  successful  triumph  of  passion  over  law, 
and  the  consequent  and  universal  insecurity  ot 
life  is,  in  the  main,  very  similar  to  that  of  the  states 
already  considered.  In  some  portions  of  each  of 
these  states,  human  life  has  probably  as  little  real 
protection  as  in  Arkansas,  Mississippi  and  Louisi- 
ana ;  but  generally  throughout  the  former  states 
and  sections,  the  laws  are  not  so  absolutely  power- 
less as  in  the  latter  three.  Deadly  affrays,  duels, 
murders,  lynchings,  &c.,  are,  in  proportion  to  the 
white  population,  as  frequent  and  as  rarely  pun- 
ished  in  lower  Virginia  as  in  Kentucky  and  Mis- 
souri ;  in  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  as  in 
Tennessee  ;  and  in  Georgia  and  Florida  as  in 
Alabama. 

To  insert  the  criminal  statistics  of  the  remaining 
slave  states  in  detail,  as  those  of  the  states  already 
considered  have  been  presented,  would,  we  find, 
fill  more  space  than  can  well  be  spared.  Instead 
of  this,  we  propose  to  exhibit  the  state  of  society  in 
all  the  slaveholding  region  bordering  on  the  Atlan- 
tic, by  the  testimony  of  the  slaveholders  themselves, 
corroborated  by  a  few  plain  facts.  Leavi'ig  out 
of  view  Florida,  where  law  is  the  most  powerless, 
and  Maryland  where  probably  it  is  the  least  so, 
we  propose  to  select  as  a  fair  illustration  of  the  actual 
state  of  society  in  the  Atlantic  slaveholding  regions, 
North  Carolina  whose  border  is  but  250  miles  from 
the  free  states  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey, 
and  Georgia  which  constitutes  its  south  western 
boundary. 

We  will  begin  with  Georgia.  This  state  was 
settled  more  than  a  century  ago  by  a  colony  under 
General  Oglethorpe.  The  colony  was  memorable 
for  its  high  toned  morality.  One  of  its  first  regu- 
lations was  an  absolute  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
every  form  :  but  another  generation  arose,  the 
prohibition  was  abolished,  a  multitude  of  slaves 
were  imported,  the  exercise  of  unlimited  power 
over  them  lashed  up  passion  to  the  spurning  of  all 
control,  and  now  the  dreadful  state  of  society  that 
exists  in  Georgia,  is  revealed  by  the  following  testi 
mony  out  of  her  own  mouth. 

The  editor  of  the  Darien  (Georgia)  Telegraph, 
in  his  paper  of  November  6,  1838,  published  the 
following. 

"Murderous  Attack. — Between  the  hours  of 
three  and  four  o'clock,  on  Saturday  last,  the  editor 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


207 


of  this  paper  was  attacked  by  FOURTEEN  armed 
ruffians,  and  knocked  down  by  repeated  blows  of 
bludgeons.  All  his  assailants  were  armed  with 
pistols,  dirks,  and  large  clubs.  Many  of  them  are 
known  to  us ;  but  there  is  neither  law  nor  justice 
to  be  had  in  Dnrien  !  We  arc  doomed  to  death 
by  the  employers  of  the  assassins  who  attacked  us 
on  Saturday,  and  no  less  than  our  blood  will  satisfy 
them.  The  cause  alleged  for  this  unmanly,  base, 
cowardly  outrage,  is  some  expressions  which  oc- 
curred in  an  election  squib,  printed  at  this  office, 
and  extensively  circulated  through  the  county,  be. 
fore  the  election.  The  names  of  those  who  sur- 
rounded us,  when  the  attack  was  made,  are,  A. 
Lefils,  jr.  (son  to  the  representative),  Madison 
Thomas,  Francis  Harrison,  Thomas  Hopkins, 
Alexander  Blue,  George  Wing,  James  Eilands, 
W.  I.  Perkins,  A.  J.  Raymur :  the  others  we  can- 
not at  present  recollect.  The  two  first,  Lefils  and 
Thomas  struck  us  at  the  same  time.  Pistols  were 
levelled  at  us  in  all  directions.  We  can  produce 
the  most  respectable  testimony  of  the  truth  of  this 
statement." 

The  same  number  of  the  "  Darien  Telegraph," 
from  which  the  preceding  is  taken,  contains  a  cor- 
respondence between  six  individuals,  setthng  the 
preliminaries  of  duels.  The  correspondence  fills, 
with  the  exception  of  a  dozen  lines,  jive  colmnns  of 
the  paper.  The  parties  were  Col.  W.  Whig  Haz- 
zard,  commander  of  one  of  the  Georgia  regiments 
m  the  recent  Seminole  campaign.  Dr.  T.  F.  Haz- 
zard,  a  physician  of  St.  Simons,  and  Thomas  Haz- 
zard,  Esq.  a  county  magistrate,  on  the  one  side, 
and  Messrs.  J.  A.  Willey,  H.  W.  Willey,  and  H. 
B.  Gould,  Esqs.  of  Darien,  on  the  other.  In  their 
published  correspondence  the  parties  rail  each  other 
"liar,"   "mean  rascal,"  "puppy,"  "villain,"  &c. 

The  magistrate,  Thomas  Hazzard,  who  accepts 
the  challenge  of  J.  A.  Willey,  says,  in  one  of  his 
letters,  "Being  a  magistrate,  under  a  solemn  oath 
to  do  all  in  my  power  to  keep  the  peace,"  &c.,  and 
yet  this  personification  of  Georgia  justice  super- 
scribes his  letter  as  follows  :  "  To  the  Liar,  Puppy, 
Fool,  and  Poltroon,  Mr.  John  A.  Willey."  The 
magistrate  closes  his  letter  thus  : 

"  Here  I  am  ;  call  upon  me  for  personal  satisfac- 
tion  (in  propria  forma) ;  and  in  the  Farm  Field, 
on  St.  Simon's  Island,  {Deo  juvante,)  I  will  give 
you  a  full  front  of  my  body,  and  do  all  in  my  pow- 
er to  satisfy  your  thirst  for  blood  !  And  more,  I 
will  wager  you  $100,  to  be  planked  on  the  scratch  ! 
that  J.  A.  Willey  will  neither  kill  or  defeat  T.  F. 
Hazzard." 

The  following  extract  from  the  correspondence  is 
a  sufficient  index  of  slaveholding  civilization. 

"  ARTICLES  OF  BATTLE     BETWEEN  JOHN    A.    WILLEY 
AND    W.    WHIG    HAZZARD. 

Condition  I.  The  parties  to  fight  on  the  same 
day,  and  at  the  same  place,  (St.  Simon's  beach, 
near  the  lighthouse,)  where  the  meeting  between 
T.  F.  Hazzard  and  J.  A.  Willey  will  take  place. 

Condition  2.  The  parties  to  fight  with  broad- 
swords in  the  right  hand,  and  a  dirk  in  the  left. 

Condition  3.  On  the  word  "  Charge,"  the  parties 


to  advance,  and  attack  with  the  broad-sword,  or 
close  with  the  dirk. 

Condition  4.  The  head  of  the  vanquished  to 

BE  CUT  OFF  BY  THE  VICTOR,  AND  STUCK  UPON  A  POLE 

ON  THE  Farm  Field  dam,  the  original  cause  of  dis- 
pute. 

Condition  5.  Neither  party  to  object  to  each 
other's  weapons ;  and  if  a  sword  breaks,  the  con- 
test to  continue  with  the  dirk." 

This  Col.  W.  Whig  Hazzard  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  ciUzens  in  the  southern  part  of  Georgia, 
and  previously  signalized  himself,  as  we  learn  from 
one  of  the  letters  in  the  correspondence,  by  "  three 
deliberate  rounds  in  a  duel." 

The  Macon  (Georgia)  Telegraph  of  October  9, 
1838,  contains  the  following  notice  of  two  affrays 
in  that  place,  in  each  of  which  an  individual  was 
killed,  one  on  Tuesday  and  the  other  on  Saturday 
of  the  same  week.  In  publishing  the  case,  the 
Macon  editor  remarks : 

"  We  are  compelled  to  remark  on  the  inefficien 
cy  of  our  laws  in  bringing  to  the  bar  of  public  jus 
tice,  persons  committing  capital  offences.  Under 
the  present  mode,  a  man  has  nothing  more  to  do 
than  to  leave  the  state,  or  step  over  to  Texas,  or 
some  other  place  not  farther  off,  and  he  need  en- 
tertain no  fear  of  being  apprehended.  So  long  as 
such  a  state  of  things  is  permitted  to  exist,  just  so 
long  will  every  man  who  has  an  enemy  (and  there 
are  but  few  who  have  not)  be  in  constant  danger 
of  being  shot  down  in  the  streets." 

To  these  remarks  of  the  Macon  editor,  who  is  in 
the  centre  of  the  state,  near  the  capital,  the  editor 
of  the  Darien  Telegraph,  two  hundred  miles  distant, 
responds  as  follows,  in  his  paper  of  October  30. 
1838. 

"  The  remarks  of  our  contemporary  are  not 
without  cause.  They  apply,  with  peculiar  force, 
to  this  community.  Blurdercrs  and  rioters  will 
never  stand  in  need  of  a  sanctuary  as  long  as 
Darien  is  what  it  is." 

It  is  a  coincidence  which  carries  a  comment  with 
it,  that  in  less  than  a  week  after  this  Darien  editor 
made  these  remarks,  he  was  attacked  in  the  street 
by  "fourteen  gentlemen,"  armed  with  bludgeons, 
knives,  dirks,  pistols,  &c.,  and  would  doubtless 
have  been  butchered  on  the  spot  if  he  had  not  been 
rescued. 

We  give  the  following  statement  at  length  as 
the  chief  perpetrator  of  the  outrages.  Col.  W.  N. 
Bishop,  was  at  the  time  a  high  functionary  of  the 
State  of  Georgia,  and,  as  we  learn  from  the  Ma- 
con Messenger,  still  holds  two  public  offices  in 
the  State,  one  of  them  from  the  direct  appoint- 
ment of  the  governor. 

From  the  "  Georgia  Messenger"  of  August  25, 
1837. 

"  During  the  administration  of  Wilson  Lump- 
kin, WILLIAM  N.  BISHOP  received  from  his 
Excellency  the  appointment  of  Indian  Agent,  in 
the  place  of  William  Springer.  During  that  year 
(1834,)    the  said   governor  gave  the    command 


208 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


of  a  company  af  men,  40  in  number,  to  the  said 
W.  N.  Bishop,  to  be  selected  by  him,  and  arm- 
ed  with  the  muskets  of  the  State.  This  band  was 
organized  for  the  special  purpose  of  keeping  the 
Cherokees  in  subjection,  and  although  it  is  a  no- 
torious fact  tliat  the  Cherokees  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Spring  Place  were  peaceable  and  by  no 
means  refractory,  the  said  band  were  kept  there, 
and  seldom  made  any  excursion  whatever  out  of 
the  county  of  Murray.  It  is  also  a  notorious  fact, 
tiiat  the  said  band,  from  the  day  of  their  or- 
ganization,  never  permitted  a  citizen  of  Murray 
county  opposed  to  the  dominant  party  of  Gc'- 
gia,  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage  at  any  elec- 
tion whatever.  From  that  period  to  the  last  of 
January  election,  the  said  band  appeared  at  the 
polls  with  the  arms  of  the  State,  rejecting  every 
vote  that  "  was  not  of  the  true  stripe,"  as  they 
called  it.  That  they  frequently  seized  and  drag, 
gcd  to  the  polls  honest  citizens,  and  compelled 
them  to  vote  contrary  to  their  will. 

"  Such  acts  of  arbitrary  despotism  were  tolerated 
by  tiie  administration.  Appeals  from  the  citizens 
of  Murray  county  brought  them  no  relief — and 
incensed  at  such  outrages,  they  determined  on 
the  first  Monday  in  January  last,  to  turn  out  and 
elect  such  Judges  of  the  Inferior  Court  and  coun- 
ty  officers,  as  would  be  above  the  control  of 
Bishop,  that  he  might  thereby  be  prevented  from 
packing  such  a  jury  as  he  cliose  to  try  him  for 
his  brutal  and  unconstitutional  outrages  on  their 
rights.  Accordingly  on  Sunday  evening  previous 
to  the  election,  about  twenty  citizens  who  lived 
a  distance  from  the  county  site,  came  in  unarm- 
ed and  unprepared  for  battle,  intending  to  re- 
main in  town,  vote  in  the  morning  and  return 
home.  They  were  met  by  Bishop  and  his  State 
band,  and  asked  by  the  former  '  whether  they 
were  for  peace  or  war.'  They  unanimously  re- 
sponded "  we  are  for  peace."  At  that  moment 
Bishop  ordered  a  fire,  and  instantly  every  mnsket 
of  his  band  was  discharged  art  those  citizens,  5 
of  whom  were  wounded,  and  others  escaped  with 
butlet  holes  in  their  clothes.  Not  satisfied  with 
the  outrage,  the?/  dragged  an  aged  man  from 
his  wagon  and  beat  him  nearly  to  death. 

"  In  this  way  the  voters  were  driven  from  Spring 
Place,  and  before  day  light  the  next  morning,  the 
polls  were  opened  by  order  of  Bishop,  and  soon 
after  sun  rise  they  were  closed ;  Bishop  having 
ascertained  that  the  band  and  Schley  men  had 
all  voted.  A  runner  was  then  dispatched  to  Mil- 
ledgevillc,  and  received  from  Governor  Schley 
commissions  for  those  self-made  officers  of  Bish- 
op's, two  of  whom  have  since  runaway,  and  the 
rest  have  been  called  on  by  the  citizens  of  the 
county  to  resign,  being  each  members  of  Bishop's 
band,  and  doubtless  runaways  from  other  States. 

"  After  these  outrages.  Bishop  apprehending  an 
appeal  to  the  judiciary  on  the  part  of  the  injured 
citizens  of  Murray  county,  had  a  jury  drawn  to 
suit  him  and  appointed  one  of  his  band  Clerk  of 
the  Superior  Court.  For  these  acts, the  Governor 
and  officers  of  the  Central  Bank  rewarded  him 
with  an  office  in  the  Bank  of  the  State,  since 
which  his  own  jury  found  eleven  true  bills  against 
him." 

In  the  Milledgeville  Federal  Union  of  May  2, 
1837.  we  find  the   following  presentment  of  the 


Grand  Jury  of  Union  County,  Georgia,  which  aa 
it  shows  some  relics  of  a  moral  sense,  still  linger 
ing  in  the  state  we  insert. 

Presentment  of  the  Grand  Jury  of  Union  Co., 
March  term,  1837. 

"  We  would  notice,  as  a  subject  of  painful  in- 
terest, the  appointment  of  Wm.  N.  Bishop  to 
the  high  and  responsible  office  of  Teller,  of  the 
Central  Bank  of  the  State  of  Georgia — an  insti- 
tution of  such  magnitude  as  to  merit  and  demand 
the  most  unslumbering  vigilance  of  the  freemen 
of  this  State ;  as  a  portion  of  whom,  we  feel 
bound  to  express  our  indignant  reprehension  of 
the  promotion  of  such  a  character  to  one  of  its 
most  responsible  posts — and  do  exceedingly  re- 
gret the  blindness  or  depravity  of  those  who  can 
sanction  such  a  measure. 

"  We  request  that  our  presentment  be  published 
in  the  "  Miners'  Recorder  and  Federal  Union. 
John  Martin,  Foreman." 

On  motion  of  Henry  L.  Sims,  Solicitor  Gcne- 
neral,  "  Ordered  by  the  court,  that  the  present- 
ments of  the  Grand  Jury,  be  published  according 
to  their  request."  Thomas  Hen'ry,  Clerk. 

The  same  paper,  four  weeks  after  publishing 
the  preceding  facts,  contained  the  following :  wc 
give  it  in  detail  as  the  wretch  who  enacted  the 
tragedy  was  another  public  functionary  of  the 
state  of  Georgia  and  acting  in  an  official  capa 
city. 

"  Murder. — One  of  the  most  brutal  and  inhu- 
man murders  it  has  ever  fallen  to  our  lot  to  no- 
tice, was  lately  committed  in  Cherokee  countj'. 
by  Julius  Bates,  the  son  of  the  principal  keeper  of 
the  Penitentiary,  upon  an  Indian. 

"  The  circumstances  as  detailed  to  us  by  the 
most  respectable  men  of  both  parties,  arc  these. 
At  the  last  Superior  Court  of  Cass  county,  the 
unfortunate  Indian  was  sentenced  to  the  Peniten- 
tiary. Bates,  as  one  of  the  Penitentiary  guard. 
was  sent  with  another  to  carry  him  and  others, 
from  other  counties  to  Milledgevillc.  He  started 
from  Cassville  with  the  Indian  ironed  and  bare 
footed  ;  and  walked  liim  within  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  of  Canton,  the  C.  H.  in  Cherokee,  a  distance 
of  twenty-eight  to  thirty  miles,  over  a  very  rough 
road  in  little  more  than  half  the  day.  On  arriv- 
ing at  a  small  creek  near  town,  the  Indian  [who 
had  walked  until  the  soles  of  his  feet  were  off  and 
those  of  his  heel  turned  back,]  made  signs  to  get 
water,  Bates  refused  to  let  him,  and  ordered  him 
to  go  on :  the  Indian  stopped  and  finally  set 
down,  whereupon  Bates  dismounted  and  gather- 
ing a  pine  knot,  commenced  and  continued  beat- 
ing him  and  jirking  him  by  a  chain  around  his 
neck,  until  the  citizens  of  the  village  were  drawn 
there  by  the  severitj' of  the  blows.  The  unfortu- 
nate creature  was  taken  up  to  town  and  died  in 
a  few  hours. 

"An  inquest  was  held,  and  the  jury  found  a 
verdict  of  murder  by  Bates.  A  warrant  was  is- 
sued, but  Bates  had  departed  that  morning  in 
charge  of  other  prisoners  taken  from  Canton,  and 
the  worthy  officers  of  ihe  county  di^sisfed  from 
his  pursuit,  '  because  they  aiipreliendcd  he  had 
passed  the  limits  of  the  county.'  \Vr  understand 
that  the   warrant  was  immediatelr  sent   to  tlio 


Objections  Considered — Public  Opinion. 


209 


Governor  to  have  him  arrested.  Will  it  be  done  ? 
We  shall  sec." 

Having  devoted  so  much  space  to  a  revelation 
of  the  state  of  society  among  the  slaveholders  of 
(Jeorgia,  we  will  tax  the  reader's  patience  with 
only  a  single  illustration  of  the  public  sentiment 
— the  degree  of  actual  legal  protection  enjoyed  in 
the  state  of  North  Carolina. 

North  Carolina  was  settled  about  two  centu- 
ries ago  ;  its  present  white  population  is  about  five 
hundred  thousand. 

Passing  by  the  murders,  affrays,  &,c.  witli 
which  the  North  Carolina  papers  abound,  we  in- 
sert the  following  as  an  illustration  of  tlie  public 
sentiment  of  North  Carolina  among  '  gentlemen 
of  property  and  standing.' 

The  '  North  Carolina  Literary  and  Commercial 
.Tournal,'  of  January  20,  1838,  published  at  Ehza- 
i)eth  City,  devotes  a  column  and  a  half  to  a  desr 
ci'iption  of  the  lynching,  tarring,  fcatlnring, 
ducking,  riding  on  a  rail,  pumping,  &.e.,  of  a  Mr. 
Charles  Fife,  a  merchant  of  tliat  city,  for  the 
(uime  of  '  trading  with  negroes.'  The  editor  in- 
forms us  that  this  exploit  of  vandalism  was  per- 
formed very  deliberately,  at  mid-day,  and  by  a 
number  of  the  citizens,  the  most  respectable  in 
THE  citv,'  &:.c.  We  proceed  to  give  tlie  reader 
an  abridgement  of  the  editor's  statement  in  his 
own  woi  ds. — 

''  Such  being  the  case,  a  number  of  the  citi- 
zens,    THE    most    respectable    IN   THIS    CITY,    Col- 

lected,  about  ten  days  since,  and  after  putting  the 
fellow  on  a  rail,  carried  him  through  town  with  a 
duck  and  chicken  tied  to  him.  He  was  taken 
down  to  the  water  and  his  head  tarred  and  fea- 
thered ;  and  when  they  returned  he  was  put  un- 
dcr  a  pump,  where  for  a  few  minutes  he  under- 
went a  little  cooling.  He  was  then  told  that  he 
must  leave  town  by  the  ne:;t  Saturday — if  he  did 
not  he  would  be  visited  again,  and  treated  more 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  laws  of 
Judge  Lynch. 

"  On  Saturday  last,  he  was  again  visited,  and 
as  Fife  had  several  of  his  friends  to  assist  him, 
some  little  sculHe  ensued,  when  several  were 
knocked  down,  but  notliing  serious  occurred. 
Fife  was  again  mounted  on  a  rail  and  brought  into 
town,  but  as  he  promised  if  they  would  not 
trouble  him  he  would  leave  town  in  a  few  days, 
lie  was  set  at  liberty.  Several  of  our  magistrates 
took  no  notice  of  the  affair,  and  rather  seemed  to 
tacitly  acquiesce  in  the  proceedings.  The  whole 
subject  every  one  supposed  was  ended,  as  Fife 
was  to  leave  in  a  few  days,  when  what  was  oitu 
ASTONisHMKNT  to  hear  that  Mr.  Charles  R.  Kin- 
ney had  visited  Fife,  advised  him  not  to  leave, 
and  actually  took  upon  himself  to  examine  wit- 
nessos,  and  came  before  the  public  as  tlie  defend-' 
er  of  Fife.  The  consequence  was,  that  all  the 
rioters  were  summoned  by  the  Sheriff  to  appear 
in  the  Court  House  and  give  bail  for  their  ap. 
pearance  at  our  next  court.  On  Monday  last  the 
court  opened  at  12  o'clock.  Judge  Bailey  presid- 
ing. Sucii  an  excitement  we  never  witnessed 
14 


before  in  our  town.  A  great  many  witnesses 
were  examined,  which  proved  the  character  of 
Fife  beyond  a  doubt.  At  one  time  rather  serious 
consequences  were  apprehended — high  words 
were  spoken,  and  luckily  a  blow  which  wan 
aimed  at  Mr.  Kinney,  was  parried  off,  and  we 
are  happy  to  say  the  court  adjourned  after  ample 
securities  being  given.  The  next  day  Fife  was 
taken  to  jail  for  trading  with  negroes,  but  has 
since  been  released  on  paying  $100.  The  inter- 
ference of  Mr.  Kinney  was  wholly  unnecessary  : 
it  was  an  assumption  on  his  part  which  properly 
belonged  to  our  magistrates.  Fife  had  agreed  to 
go  away,  and  the  matter  would  have  been  ami- 
cably settled  but  for  him.  We  have  no  unfriend- 
ly feelings  towards  Mr.  Kinnc}' :  no  personal  ani- 
mosities to  gratify  :  we  have  always  considered 
him  as  one  of  our  best  lawyers.  But  when  he 
comes  forth  a8  the  supporter  of  such  a  fellow  as 
Fife,  under  the  plea  that  the  laws  have  been  vio- 
lated— when  he  arraigns  the  acts  of  thirty  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  place,  it  is  high  time  for  him 
to  reflect  seriously  on  the  consequences.  The 
Penitentiary  system  is  the  result  of  the  refinement 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  As  man  advances  in 
the  sciences,  in  the  arts,  in  the  intercourse  of  so- 
cial and  civihzed  life,  in  the  same  proportion  does 
crime  and  vice  keep  an  equal  pace,  and  alwajrs 
makes  demands  on  the  wisdom  of  legislators. 
Now,  what  is  the  Lynch  law  but  the  Penitentiary 
system  carried  out  to  its  full  extent,  with  a  little 
more  steam  power  ?  or  more  properly,  it  is  sini- 
ply  thus :  There  are  sorne  scoundrels  in  society 
on  whom  the  laws  take  no  effect  ;  the  most  cxpe. 
ditious  and  short  way  is  to  let  a  majority  decide 
and  groe  them  JUSTICE." 

Let  the  reader  notice,  1st,  that  this  outrage  was 
perpetrated  with  great  deliberation,  and  after  it 
was  over,  the  victim  was  commanded  to  leave 
town  by  the  next  week  :  when  that  cooling  inter- 
val had  passed,  the  outrage  was  again  deliberate- 
ly repeated.  2d.  It  was  perpetrated  by  "  thirty 
persons,'  "  the  most  respectable  in  the  city."  3d. 
That  at  the  second  lynching  of  Fife,  several  of 
his  neighbors  who  had  gathered  to  defend  him, 
(seeing  that  aM  the  legal  officers  in  tiie  city  had 
refused  to  do  it,  thus  violating  their  oaths  of  of- 
fice,) were  knocked  down,  to  which  the  editor 
adds,  with  the  business  air  of  a  professional 
butcher,  "  nothing  serious  occurred  I"  4th.  That 
not  a  single  magistrate  in  the  city  took  the  least 
notice  either  of  the  barbarities  inflicted  upon  Fife, 
or  of  the  assaults  upon  his  friends,  knocking  them 
down,  &-e. ,  but,  as  the  editor  informs  us,  all 
"  seemed  to  acquiesce  in  the  proceedings."  5th. 
That  this  conduct  of  the  magistrates  was  well 
pleasing  to  tJie  great  mass  of  the  citizens,  is  plain, 
from  the  remark  of  the  editor  that  "  every  one 
supposed  that  the  whole  subject  was  ended,"  and 
from  his  wondering  exclamation,  "  what  was 
OUR  ASTONISHMENT  to  hear  that  Mr.  C.  R.  Kin. 
ney  had  actually  took  upon  him  to  examine  wit- 
nesses," &c.,  and  also  from  tl:n  editor's  declara- 
tion, "  Such  an  excitement  we  never  before  wit- 


210 


Objections  Considered— FuhVic  Opinion. 


nessed  m  our  town."  Excitement  at  what  ?  Not  ; 
because  the  laws  had  been  most  impiously  tram- 
pled down  at  noon-day  by  a  conspiracy  of  thirty 
persons,  "  the  most  respectable  in  the  city  ;"  not 
because  a  citizen  had  been  twice  seized  and  pub- 
licly tortured  for  hours,  without  trial,  and  in  utter 
defiance  of  all  authority  ;  nay,  verily  !  this  was  all 
complacently  acquiesced  in  ;  but  because  in  this 
slaveholding  Sodom  there  was  found  a  solitary 
Lot  who  dared  to  uplift  his  voice  for  law  and  the 
right  of  trial  oy  jury  ;  this  crime  stirred  up  such 
an  uproar  in  that  city  of  "  most  respectable" 
lynchers  as  was  "  never  witnessed  before,"  and 
the  noble  lawyer  who  thus  put  every  thing  at 
stake  in  invoking  the  majesty  of  law,  would,  it 
seems,  have  been  knocked  down,  even  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Court,  if  the  blow  had  not  been 
"  parried."  6th.  Mark  the  murderous  threat  of 
the  editor — "  when  he  arraigns  the  acts,"  (no 
matter  how  murderous)  "  of  thirty  citizens  of  this 
j)lacc,  it  is  high  time  for  him  to  reflect  seriously 
on  the  consequences."  7th.  The  open  advocacy 
of  ''  Lynch  law"  by  a  set  argument,  boldly  set- 
ting it  above  all  codes,  with  which^the  editor 
closes  his  article,  reveals  a  public  sentiment  in 
the  community  which  shows,  that  in  North  Ca- 
rolina, though  society  may  still  rally  under  the 
flag  of  civilization,  and  insist  on  wrapping  itself 
in  its  folds,  barbarismis  none  the  less  so  in  a  stolen 
livery,  and  savages  are  savages  still,  though 
*ricked  out  with  the  gauze  and  tinsel  of  the  stars 
and  stripes. 

It  may  be  stated,  in  conclusion,  that  the  North 


Carolina  "  Literary  and  Commercial  Journal,"" 
from  which  the  article  is  taken,  is  a  lari,re  six- 
columned  paper,  edited  by  F.  S.  Proctor,  Esq.,  a 
graduate  of  a  University,  and  of  considerable 
literary  note  in  the  Soulh. 

Having  drawn  out  this  topic  to  so  great  a 
length,  we  waive  all  comments,  and  only  say  to 
the  reader,  in  conclusion,  ponder  these  things, 
and  lay  it  to  heart,  that  slaveholding  "is  justified 
of  her  children.''  Verily,  they  have  their  re- 
ward !  "  With  what  measure  ye  mete  withal  it 
shall  be  measured  to  }-ou  again."  Those  vt'ho 
combine  to' trample  on  others,  will  trample  on 
each  other.  The  habit  of  trampling  upon  one,  be. 
gets  a  state  of  mind  that  will  trample  upon  all. 
Accustomed  to  wreak  their  vengeance  on  their 
slaves,  indulgence  of  passion  becomes  with  slave- 
holders a  second  law  of  nature,  and,  v.lien  excited 
even  by  their  equals,  their  hot  blood  brooks  nei. 
thcr  restraint  nor  delay  ;  grat  if  cation  \s  \.hc  frst 
thought — prudence  generally  comes  too  late,  and 
the  slaves  sec  their  masters  fall  a  prey  to  each 
other,  the  victims  of  those  very  passions  which 
have  been  engendered  and  infuriated  by  the  prac- 
tice of  arbitrary  rule  over  them.  Surely  it  need 
not  be  added,  that  those  who  thus  tread  dovvji 
their  equals,  must  trample  as  in  a  wine.pres.s 
their  defenceless  vassals.  If,  when  in  passion, 
they  seize  those  who  are  on  their  oion  level,  and 
dash  them  under  their  feet,  with  what  a  crush- 
ing vengeance  will  they  leap  upon  those  who  are 
I  always  under  their  feet  ? 


INDEX. 


To  facilitate  the  use  of  tlic  Index,  some  of  the  more  common  topics  are  arranged  under  one  general  title.  Thus  all  the 
Tolumos  which  are  cited  are  classed  under  the  word,  Books  ;  and  to  that  head  reference  must  ba  made.  The  same  plan 
haa  been  adopted  concerning  Female  Slave-Drivers,  I^aws,  J\rarratiocs,  Overseers,  Rancways,  Slavekoldn-s,  Slavc- 
yiarderers,  Slave- Plantations,  Slaves,  Female  and  Male,  Testimony  and  Witnesses.  Therelbre,  with  a  few  emphatical 
exceptions  only,  the  facts  will  be  found,  by  recurring  to  the  prominent  person  or  subject  which  any  circumstance  iiv 
du4es*    All  other  miscellaneous  articles  will  be  discovered  In  alphabetical  order. 


A. 

Absolute  power  of  slaveholders 

Absurdity  of  slaveholding  pretexts 

Abuse  of  power 

Accliraated  slaves 

Adrian 

Adultery  in  a  preacher's  house 

Advertisement  for  slaves 

Advertisement  for  slaves  to  hire 

Advertisements,  02,  G3,  77-82,  83, 

Affray 

African  slave-trade 

Aged  slaves  uncommon 

Alabama 

Alexander  the  tyrant 

Allowance  of  provisions 

Amalgamation  1 


116 

115 

161 

119 

180 

41 

34,  136,  137 

,  152,  164, 

167,  168,  172 

201,  203 

8,  113 

38 

30,  177,  1!'2 

127,  92 

13,  47,  98 

1,  51,  97,  107 


American  Colonization  Society 
"  Amiable  and  touching  charity  !" 
Amusements  of  slave-drivers 
Animals  and  slaves,  usage  of,  contrasted 
Antioch,  massacre  at 
"  Arbitrary," 

Arbitrary  power,  cruelty  of 
"  "         pernicious 

Ardor  in  betting 
Avius 
Arkansas 

-Vtlantic  Slaveholding  Region 
Auctioneers  of  slaves 
Auctions  for  slaves 
Aug;istine 
Aurelius 


107 


60 
114 
186 
112 
120 
115 
117 
115 
171 
120 
188 
206 
174,  181 
167,  174 
103 
1J9 


8  I  Aversion  between  the  oppressor  and  the  slave  116 


Index. 


211 


B. 

Babbling  of  slaveholders  9 

Backs  of  slaves  carded  46 

"         "         putrid  54 

"  Ball  and  chain"  men  108 

Baptist  preachers  97 

Battles  in  Congress  184 

Beating  a  woman's  face  with  shoes  2G 

Bedaubing  of  slaves  with  oil  and  tar  27 

Begetting  slaves  for  pay  IG 

"  Bend  your  backs"  47 

Benevolence  of  slaveholders  l25 
Betting  on  crops                                             38,   1(13 

"           slaves  176 

Beware  of  Kidnappers  140 

Bibles  searched  for  51 
Blin.l  slaves                                                133,  13C 

Blocks  with  sharp  pegs  and  nails  104 

Blood-bought  luxuries  55 

Bodley,  II.  S.  149 

Bones  dislocated  77 


African  Observer  155 

American  Convention,  minutes  of  60 

"         Museum  155 

"         State  Papers  59 

Andrews'  Slavery  and  the  Slave  Trade  1C7 

Bay's  Reports  155 
Bcnezet's  Caution  to  Britain  and  her  Colonies 

57,  112 
Biackstone's  Commentaries,  by  Tucker  123 
Book  and  Slavery  irreconcilable  52 
Bourgoing's  Spain  125 
Bourne's  Picture  of  Slavery  178 
Brevard's  Digest  of  the  Laws  of  South  Caro- 
lina 35,  40,  116,  143,  144,  145,  147 
Brewster's  Exposition  of  Slave  Treatment  30 
Buchanan's  Oration  58,  112,  118 
Carey's  American  Museum  55 
Carolina,  History  of  35 
Channing  on  Slavery  38,  127 
Charity,  "  amiable  and  touching  !  "  114 
Childs'  Appeal  124,  140 
Civil  Code  of  Louisiana  116 
Clay's  Address  to  Georgia  Presbytery  30 
Colonization  Society's  Reports  60 
Cornelius  Elias,  Life  of  161 
Davis's  Travels  in  Louisiana  35,  36,  134 
Debates  in  Virginia  Convertion  183 
Devereux's  North  Carolina  Reports  143,  149 
Dew's  Review  of  Debates  in  the  Virginia 

Legislature  182 

Edwards'  Sermon                                28,  58,  118 

Emancipation  in  the  West  Indies  129 
Emigrant's  Guide  through  the  Valley  of  Mis- 

sissippi  135 

Gales'  Congressional  Debates  164 

Harris  and  Johnson's  Reports  133 
Haywood's  Manual                              29,  144, 148 

Hill's  reports  143 

Human  Rights  93 

James'  Digest  143 

Jefferson's  Notes                                    '  117 

Josephus'  History  119 

Justinian,  Institutes  of  117 

Kennet's  Roman  Antiquities  119 

Laponneray's  Life  of  Robespierre  1^1 

Law  of  Slavery  149 

Laws  of  United  States  32 


Leland's  necessity  of  Divine  Revelation  127 

Letters  from  the  South,  by  J.  K.  Paulding  76,  89 


161 

116 

42 

139 

40, 


12S 

118 

127 

60 


128 
112 
121 

39,  59 
119 

30.  65 
167 
131 

lis 


Life  of  Elias  Cornel'us 
Louisiana,  civil  code  of 

"         sketches  of 
Martineau's  Harriet,  Society  in  America 
-Martin's  Digest  of  the  laws  of  Louisiana 

143, 146, 149,  163 
Maryland  laws  of  155 

Mead's  Journal  59 

Mississippi  Revised  Code  143,  144 

Missouri  Laws  144 

Modern  state  of  Spain  by  J  F.  Bourgoing 
Montesquieu's  Spirit  of  Laws 
Necessity  of  Divine  Revelation 
Niles'  Baltimore  Register 
North  Carolina  Reports  by  Devereaux,128,143,149 
Oasis  160 

Parrish's  remarks  on  slavery  30,  155 

Paulding's  letters  from  the  South  76,  89 

Paxton's  letters  on  slavery  144 

Presbyterian  Synod,  Report  of  117 

Picture  of  slavery  178 

Prince's  Digest  116,  144,  150 

Prison  Dicipline  Society,  reports  of  33,  35 

Rankin's  Letters  60 

Reed  and  Matheson's  visit  to  Am.  churches      39 
Review  of  Nevins'  Biblical  Antiquities 
Rice,  speech  of  in  Kentucky  convention 
Robespierre,  Life  of 
Robin's  travels 
Roman  Antiquities 
Savery's  Journal 
Slavery  and  the  Slave  Trade 
Society  in  America 
Sewali's  Diary 
South  Carolina,  Laws  of  116,  121,  143,  144 

South  vindicated  by  Drayton  110 

Spirit  of  Laws  118 

Swain's  address  60 

Stroud's  Sketch  of  the  Slave  Laws  143, 144, 

148, 149,  150,  155 
Taylor's  Agricultural  Essays  35, 138 

Travels  in  Louisiana  35,  36, 134 

Tucker's  Blackstone  123 

Tucker's  Judge,  Letter  117 

Turner's  Sacred  History  of  the  world  121 

Virginia  Legislature,  Review  of  Debates  in      182 
"         Revised  Code  143,  144 

"         Negro-raising  state  182 

Visit  to  American  churches,  39 

Western  iVIedical  Journal  60 

Western  Medical  Reformer  31 

Western  Review  35 

Wheeler's  Law  of  slavery  60,  163 

Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry  109 

Woolman  John,  Life  of  58, 113 

Books  of  slaves  stolen  51 

Borrowing  of  slaves  55 

Bourne,  George,  anecdote  of  52 

Boy  killed  97 

Boys  fight  to  amuse  their  drivers  107 

Bowie  Knives  190 

Boys'  retort  57 
Brandings                                                       77,  108 

Branding  with  hot  iron  21 

Brassos  102 

"  Brooders"  HO 

Breeding  of  slaves  prevented  39 


212 


Index. 


"  Breeding  wenches" 

15, 

175 

"             "             comparative  value  of 

167 

Bribes  for  begetting  slaves 

16 

Brick-yards 

18 

•'Broken-winded"  slaves 

38 

Brutality  to  slaves 

148, 

149 

Brutes  and  slaves  treated  alike 

106 

Burial  of  slaves 

5 

Burning  of  Mc  Intosh 

157 

Burning  slaves                26,  72,  86,  93, 

155, 

157 

Burning  with  hot  iron 

26 

Burning  with  smoothing  irons 

68 

Butchery 

C 
Cabins  of  slaves              11,  19,  41,  43, 

193, 

196 

101, 

106 

Cachexia  Africana 

31 

,  43 

Caligula 

121, 

149 

Can't  believe 

114 

Capital  Crimes 

149 

Captain  in  the  U.  S.  navy,  tried  for  murder      26 

Carding  of  Slaves  46 

Cat-hauling  21,  88 

Cato  the  Just  8,  126 

Causes  of  the  laws  punishing  cruelty  to  slaves  147 

Chained  slave  13 

Cliains  72 

Changes  in  the  market  134 

Character  of  Overseers  72,  95,169 

"              Romans  118 

"              Slave-dnvers  109 

Charleston  22,  44 

"         Infirmary  at  170 

Jail  23 

"         Slave  auctioiis  174 

"         Surgery  at  170 

Work-house  23,  171 

Chastity  punished  15 

Child-bearing  prevented  57 

Child-birth  of  slaves  12 

Childhood  unprotected  167 

Children  flogged  20 

"       naked  19 

Choking  of  slaves  23 

Chopping  of  slaves  piecemeal  93 

Christian  females  tortured  119 

"         martyr  24 

"        slavc-imnting  108 

"         slave-murderer  50 

Christian,  slave  whipped  to  death  50 

Christians,  persecutions  of  119 

"         slavery  among  15,  176 

"  treat  their  slaves  like  others     42,  177 

Christian  woman  kidnapped  52 

Chronic  diseases  44 

Churches,  abuse  of  power  in  115 

Church  members  47 

"  Citizens  sold  as  slaves"  41 

Civilization  and  morality  188 

Clarkson,  Thomas  8 

Claudius  121 

Clemens  119 

Clothing  for  slaves    13, 19, 40, 47, 95, 98, 105, 106 

Cock-fighting  186 

Code  of  Louisiana  lit; 

Collars  of  iron  72,  74 

Columbia,  district  of  67 

"         fatal  affray  at  201 

Comfort  of  slaves  disregarded  55,  56 

Commodus  121 


Concubinage  85 

Condemned  criminals  150 

Condition  of  slaves  108 

Confinement  at  night  22 

Congress  of  the  United  States  114 

''             a  bear  garden  184 

Connecticut,  law  of,  against  Quakers  113 

Constables,  character  of  20 

Conslantine  the  Great  120 

Contempt  of  human  life  198 

Contrasts  of  benevolence  126 

Conversation  between  C.  and  H  104 

Converted  slave  33 

Cooking  for  sfaves  18 

Correction  moderate  J48 

Corrupting  influence  of  slavery  16 

Cotton  picking  9fi 

Cotton-plantations  105 

Cotton  seed  mixed  with  corn  for  food  29 

Council  of  Nice  120 

Courts,  decrees  of  164 

Cowliidcs,  with  shovel  and  tongs  104 

Crack  of  the  whip  heard  afar  off  107 

Crimes  of  slaves,  capital  149 

Criminals  condemned  150 

Cringing  of  Northern  Preachers  16 

Cropping  of  ears  20,  83 

Crops  for  exportation  135 

Cruelties,  common  87 

"         inflicted  upon  slaves  57,  87 

"        of  Cortez  in  Mexico  8 

"             Ovando  in  Hispaniola  8 

"            Pizarro  in  Peru  8 

"             of  slave-drivers  incredible  110 
Cruel  treatment  of  slaves  the  masters'  interest  138 

Cultivation  of  rice  106 
Cutting  of  A.  T.'s  throat  by  a  Presbyterian 

woman  47 

D. 

D'Almeydra,  Donna  Sophia  123 

Damaged  negroes  bought  171 

Darlington  C.  H.,  South  Carolina  25 

Dauphin  Island,  Mobile  Bav  85 
"Deader  Alive"                  "                  21,  23,   156 

Dead  slave  claimed  178 
Deaf  slaves                                                 133,  136 

Death  at  child  birth  45,  90 

Death-bed,  horrors  of  a  slave  driver  23 

Death  by  violence,  197 

Death  of  a  slave  murderer  94 

Decrees  of  Courts  164 

Decisions,  judicial  144 

Declarations  of  slaveholders  28 

Deformed  slaves  133 
Delivery  of  a  dead  child  from  whipping  46,  90 
Description  of  slave  drivers,  by  John  Ran- 


dolph 
Despair  of  slaves 
Desperate  affrav 
♦'Despot" 

"  Dimensum  "  of  Roman  slaves 
Diseased  slaves 
Dislocation  of  bones 
District  of  Columbia 

"  "  prisons  in. 

Ditty  of  slaves 

"  Doc-faces  " — ''  Dough-faces" 
Dogs  provided  for 
Dogs  to  hunt  slaves 


173 

102 

193 

115 

34 

J  33 

77 

67 

163 

13 

114 

19 

15 


Index. 


213 


Domestic  slavery  164 

Domitian                                             -  121 

Donnell,  Rev.  Mr.  70 

"Dough-faces"  114 

"Drivers"  110 

Driving  of  slaves  89,  92 

Droves  of"  human  cattle  "  76 

"       "         slaves  69,  70,  167 

Duelling  185 

Dumb  slaves  133,  136 

Dwellings  of  slaves  43 

Dying  slaves  45 

Dying  young  women  44 

E. 

Ear-cropping  20,  77,  83 
Early  market  134 
Ear-notching  83,  84 
Ear-slitting  23 
Eating  tobacco  worms  88 
Effects  of  public  opinion  concerning  slavery  144 
Emancipation  society  of  North  Carolina  60 
English  ladies  and  gentlemen  123 
Enormities  of  slave  drivers  114 
Evenings  in  the  "  Negro  quarter"  20 
Evidence  of  slaves  vs.  white  persons  null  12,  71 
Ewall,  Merry  162 
Examples  pleaded  in  justification  of  cruel- 
ty to  slaves  104 
Exchange  of  slaves  168 
Exportation  of  slave  from  Virginia  182,  184 
Eyes  struck  out  20,  77 


Faith  of  objectors  who  "  canH  believe  " 

113, 

114 

Fatal  rencontre 

193 

"  Fault-finding  " 

54 

Favorite  amusements  of  slaveholders 

186 

Fear,  the  only  motive  of  slaves 

108 

Feast  for  slaves 

87 

Feeding  insufficient 

30 

F<  eble  infants 

133 

Felonies  on  account  of  slavery 

113 

"         perpetrated  with  impunity 

113 

Female  hypocrite 

2S 

,  53 

Females  in  brick  yards 

18 

Female  slave  deranged. 

97, 

106 

FEMALE    SLAVE    DRIVERS. 

Burford,  Mrs.  180— Carter,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  L. 
79,  172— Charleston,  22,  23— Charlestown.  Va. 
ISl— Galway,  Jtlrs.  12— Harris,  Mrs.  26— H. 
Mrs.  throat  cutter,  47 — Laurie  Aladame  La,  91  — 
Mallix  Mrs.  65— Mann  Mrs.  71— Mabtin  Mrs. 
81 — Maxwell  Mrs.  1 — McNeil  Mrs.  68 — Morgan 
Mrs.  — Newman  Mrs.  B.  172— Pence  Mrs  178 
— Phinps  Mi-s.  70 — Professor  of  religion,  44,  53 — 
Ruffner  Mrs.  50— South  Carolina,  24 — Starky 
Mrs.  68— Swan  Mrs.  14 — Teacher  at  Charleston, 
54_T.  Mrs.  101— Trip  Mrs.  52— Truby,  Mrs. 
100— Turner  Mrs.  87— Walsh,  Sarah,  172. 

Female  slave  starved  to  death  23 
'              "         whipped  to  death  by  a 

Methodist  preacher  173 

Female  stripped  by  order  of  her  mistress  14 

Fetters                                                       21,  72,  74 

Field-hands  130 

Fighting  of  boys  to  amuse  their  drivers  107 


'  Fine  old  preacher  who  dealt  in  slaves'  180 

Fingers  cut  off"  77 

Flogging  for  unfinished  tasks  12 

"         of  children  20 

"         »'     pregnant  women  until  they 

miscarry  20 
slaves              20,  25,  26,  53,  107 

"         ''         young  man  106 


26,  62 

38 

28 

18,  27,  47,  95,  101,  105, 106 

30 


Floggings 
Florida 
Food,  kinds  of 

"         of  slaves 

"         quality  of 

"         quantity  of  29,  98 

Free  citizens  stolen  162,  164 

Free  woman  56 

''         "        kidnapped  52 

Frequent  murders  46  204,  208 

Friends,      emorialof  164 

Front-teeth  knocked  out  88 

Fundamental  rights  destroyed  ISO 


Gadsden  Thomas  N,  Slave  Auctioneer  174 

Gagging  of  slaves  75 

Galloway  flogging  Jo.  14 

Gambling  on  crops  38 

Gambling  slaveholder  46 

Gang  of  slaves  76 

Generosity  of  slaveholders  123 
Georgia                                                          61,  206 

Girls'  backs  burnt  with  smoothing  irons  68 

Girls'  toe  cut  off"  181 

Good  treatment  of  slaves  133 

Governor  of  North  Carolina  24 

"  Shiraz  122 
Grand  Jury  presentment  of,                       202,  202 

Guiltiness  of  Slavery  17 

Gun  shot  wounds  77 

H. 

Habits  of  slave-drivers  53 

Hampton  Wade,  murderer  of  slaves  29 

Handcuffs  72 

"  Hands  tied"  18 

Hanging  of  nine  slaves  158 

Harris  I3enjamin,  slave  murderer  26 

'  Head  found  169 

Head  of  a  runaway  slave  on  a  pole  23 

Health  of  slaves  161 

Heart  of  slaveholders  47 

Herding  of  slaves,  47 

Hilton  James,  slave  murderer  46 
Hired  slaves                                                  133,   l36 

Hiring  of- slaves  55 

"Horrible  malady"  3,1 

'  Horrid  butchery'  193 

Horrors  of  a  slave-driver  at  death  23 

"        "  the  "  middle  passage"  ll3 

Horse-racing  186 

Horses  more  cared  for  than  slaves  19 

Hospitality  of  slaveholders  123 

Hours  of  rest  36 

"       "  work  13,  14,  36,  103,  105,  108 

Hospital  at  New  Orleans  161 

House.slaves  52 

Houses  of  slaves  19 

"  House-wench"  48 

Hovels  of  slaves  47 

Huguenots,  persecution  of  8 


214 


Index. 


•'  Human  cattle,"  76,  110 

Human  rights  against  slavery  7 

Hunger  of  slaves  28 

Hunter  of  slaves  21 

Hunting  men  with  dogs  155,  IGD 

Hunting  of  slaves  21,  97,  108,  155,  159,  160 

Hunt,  Rev.  Thomas  P.  16 

Husband  whipping  his  wife  85 

Huts  of  slaves  1 1 ,  19,  41,  43,  101,  106 

Hvmn-books  searched  for  51 

Hypocrisy  of  vice  8 


Idiot  slaves 

Ignatius 

Ignorance  of  northern  citizens  ofslavery 

"  "  slaveholders 

Impunity  of  killing  slaves  21,  46,47,50,  54, 
Inadequate  clothing 
Income  from  hiring  slaves 
Incorrigible  slaves 

Incn  dibility  of  evidence  against  slavery 
Incredulity  discreditable  to  consistency 

"  "  "  intelligence 

Indecency  of  slave-drivers 
Indiana  Legislature,  resolutions  of 
Infant  drowned 
Infant  slaves 
Inf]  inarv  at  Charleston 
Infliction  of  pain 
Inspection  of  naked  slaves 
Intercession  for  slaves 
Interest  of  slaveholders 
Introduction 

Iron  collars  21,  72, 

Iron  fetters  21, 

Iron  head-front, 
Israelites  in  Egypt, 

J. 

Jewish  law 

Joe  flo£rged 

Jones,  Anson,  Minister  from  Texas 

Judicial  decisions 


133 

10 

102 

107 

91,92 

41 

55 

133 

110 

lie 

115 

153 

5!t 

12 

133 

170 

55 

154 

12 

13-^ 

7 

74.  75 

72,  74 

76 

142 


54 

14 
102 
144 


K. 

Kentucky 

"         Sunday  morning 
Kicking  of  slaves 
Kidnippers 
Kidnapping 

Kindness  of  slaveholders 
Kind-!  of  food 
Kind  treatemcnt  of  slaves. 
Knives,   Bowie 
Knocking  out  of  teeth. 


Labor,  hours  of 

Labor  of  slaves 

Ladies   Benevolent  Society 

Ladu's  floo;  with  cowhid^a 

Ladies,  public  opinion  known  by 

Ijadies  use  shovel  and  tongs 

Law  concerning  slavery 

Liw-niaking 

Laws,  (ieorgia 

"  Louisiana 

"  Maryland 


G6,  202 

160 

97 

140 

140,  141,  164 

125 

28 

8 

190 

13,  20,  83 


36,  108 

18,  35 

44 

104 

172 

104 

143,  144 

151 

40 

40,  116,  143.  163 

40,  155 


"  Mississippi  143 
"  North  Carolina  31,  128, 143,  144 
"  South  Carolina              40,  116,  143,  144,  155 

"  Spirit  of  151 

"  Tennessee  148 

"  United  States  32 

"  Virginia  40,  143 

Law,  safeguards  of  taken  from  slaves  116 

Law  suit  for  a  murdered  slave,  71 

Legal  restraints  116 

Licentiousness  16 

"  encouraged  by  preachers  180 

Licentiousness  of  slavedrivcrs  70,  97 

"  Lie  down"  for  whipping,  107 

Life  in  the  South-west,  197 

Lives  of  slaves  unprotected  155 

Lodging  of  slaves  43 

Long,  his  cruelty  50 

'  Loss  of  property'  169 

Louisiana  39  198 

''  law  of,  40 

"  sketches  of,  42 

Louis  XIV.  of  France  8 

Lovers  severed,  56 

Lunatic  slaves  133 

•'  Lynchings"  in  the  United  States  113 

Lynch  Law,  199 

M. 

Maimed  slaves  133 

iVlaimings  77 

M  alady  of  slaves  31 

Manacling  of  slaves  21 

Maniac  woman  97,  106 

M  in  sold  by  a  Presbyterian  elder  52 

Man-stealing  paid  for  90 

Vlarriage  unknown  among  slaves  47 

Martyr  for  Christ  24 

Maryland  Journal  29,  58 

Maryville  Intelligencer  61,  114 

Massacre  at  Antioch  120 

"         "  Thessalonica  120 

<'         "  Vicksburg  146 

Masters  grant  no  redress  to  slaves  95 

Mclntosii,  burning  of  157 

Maximin  121 

Meals  number  of  31 
"  of  slaves                                                18,  19,  55 

"  time  of  31 

"  Meat  once  a  year"  29 

Mediation  (or  slaves  12 

Medical  attendance  55 

"  college  of  South  Carolina  169 

''  Infirmary  at   Charleston  171 

^Icdic'nc  administered  to  slaves  14 

Members  of  churches  47 

Memorial  of  friends  164 

Menagerie  of  slaves  182 

Mi  n  and   women  whipped                      '  107 

Methodist  colored  preacher  hung,  96 

Methodist  girl  whipped  for  her  chastity  15 

Methodist  preacher,  a  slave  dealer  180 

"               "             "     driver  11 

''  woman  cut  off  a  girl's  toe  181 

>''cthr)d  of  taking  meals  IB,  19 

"  Middle  passage"  8,  113 
M  isr;arriagc  of  women  at  the  whipping  post      20 

Mississippi  39,  194 

Missouri  191 

Mistresses  flog  slaves,  55 


Index. 


215 


Mobile  68 

"  Moderate  correction"  21,  148 

Moors,  repulsion  of  8 

Morgan,  William  113 

Mormons  191 

Mothers  and  babes  separated  104,  165 

Mothers  of  slaves  96 

Mulatto  children  in  all  families  51 

Multiplying  of  slaves  139 
Murderers  of  slaves  tried  and  acquitted        26,  90 

Murder  of  slaves  by  law  90 

"  bad  feeling  29 

"         "         ''  piece-meal  34 

"         «'         every  seven  years  39 
frequent                       46,  97,  176 

'*         "         with  impunity,        21,  46,  47, 
50,  54,  91,  92,  96,97,  100,  102,  108,  176 

Murders  in  Alabama,  192 

"       "  Arkansas,  188 

N. 

Naked  children  19,  41,  95 

"     ''  Dave"  16 

"     females  whipped  14,  103 

"         "     inspected  154 

"     Men  and  women  at  work  in  a  field    lOl 

Nakedness  of  slaves  19,  40,  41,  95,  101 

Nanlz,  edict  of  8 

•  National  slave-market'  76 

Natchez  107,  190 

Nat  Turner  96 

'  Negro  Head  Point,  161 

'  Negroes  for  sale,  167,  175 

'  Negroes  taken  159 

Nero  121 

'  Never  lose  a  day's  work'  174 

New  England,  witches  of  113 

New  Orleans  91 

"         ''         Hospital  161 

New  York,  thirteen  persons  burnt  at  1 13 

Nice,  council  of  120 

'  Nigger  put  in  the  bill'  172 

Night-confinement  22 

Night  at  a  slaveholder's  house  97 

Night  in  slave  huts  19,  25 

Nine  slaves  hanged  158 

No  marriage  among  slaves  47 

North  Carolina  11,  23 

'•             "         Governor  of  24 

"             "         Legislature  of  115,  164 

"             "         Kidnappers  164 

Northern  visifors  to  the  slave  states,  128 

Nothing  can  disgrace  slave-drivers  53 

Novel  torture  104 

Nudity  of  slaves  40,  41,  47,  95, 

Nursing  of  slave-children  12 

O. 

Objections  considered  llO 

Ocra,  a  slave-driver,  106 

Oiling  of  a  slave  27 

Old  age  uncommon  among  slaves  38 

•'     *'     improtected  167 

Old  dying  slaves  12 

"  Old  settlement"  99 

'    "  slaves  133 

Oppressor  aversion  of  to  his  slave  116 

Outlawry  of  slaves  150 
Outrageous  Felonies  on  account  of  slavery       11? 
"                ''     perpetrated  witli  impunity  H3 


Overseers,  character  of  72, 95,  96, 109 

"         generally  armed  11,  12,  72 

"        no  appeal  from  95 

Overseers  of  slaves — 

Alabama,  95 — Alexander  killed,  102 — Belle- 
mont,  53 — Bellows,  72 — Blocken's,  47 — Bradley, 
70 — Cormick's,  86— Cruel  to  a  proverb,  105 — 
Farr,  James,  99 — Galloway,   11 — Gibbs,  70 

Goochland,  20 — VI ethodist  preacher,  11 — Mil- 
ligan's    Bend,  75 — Nowland's,    92 — Tune,  45- 
Turner's  cousin,  46 — Walker,   47 — Overworking 
of  slaves,  35,  37 — Ownership   of  human    beings 
destroys  their  comfort,  109. 

P. 

"  Paddle"  torture  71 

Paddle  whipping  20,  46,  103 

Pain,  the  means  of  slave  drivers  109 

"  Pancake  sticks"  53 

Parents  and  children  separated  56 

Parlor-slavcs  130 

Parricide  threatened  97 

Patrol  14 

Pay  for  brgotting  mulatto  slaves  .  16 

Periodical  pressure  134 
PtTseculion  of  Huguenots 

Persecution  for  religion  113,  1  8 

Personal  Narratives,,  11,  17,  22,  25,  26,  44, 

45,  48,  51, 

Philanthropist  66 

Philip  II.  and  the  Moora  8 

Physicians  not  employed  for  slaves  176 

Physicians  of  slaves  44,  47 

Physician's   statement  104 
Pig-sties  more  comfortable  than  slave-huts,     101 

Plantations  94 

Pleas  for  cruelty  to  slaves  104 

Ploughs  and  whips  equally  common  104 

Pliny  119 

Poles,  Russian  clemency  to  8 

Polyearp  119 

"  Poor  African  slave"  14 

Portuguese  slaves  8 

Pothinus  119 

Prayer  of  slaves  17 
Praying  and  slave-whipping  in  the  same  room  53 

Praying  slaves  whipped  88 

Preaehar  claims  a  dead  slave  178 

Preacher  hung,  96 

Preachers,  cringing  of  16 

Preacher's  "  hands  tied"  16 

Preachers  silenced  51 

Pregnant  slaves  12,  90 

whipped  20,  90,  106 

Prpsbyterian  Elders  at  Lynchburg  181 

Presbyterian  minister  killed  his  slave  96 

Presbyterian  slave-trader  97 
Presbyterian  woman  desirious  to  cut  A.  T  's 

throat  47 
Presentment  of  the  Grand  Jury  at  Cheraw       155 

Pretexts  for  slavery  absurd  7 

Prisons  in  the  District  of  Columbia  163 

Prison  slave  23 

Privations  of  the  slaves — 

Clo1hing,40— Dwellings,  43— Food,  27— Kinds 
of  food,  28 — Labor,  25 — Number  of  meals,  31 — 
Quality  of  fooc,  30 — Quantity  of  food,  29 — Time 
of  meais,  31. 


216 


Index. 


Promiscuous  concubinage 

85 

''  Property" 

110 

"         '  loss  of 

16!) 

PVotcction  of  slaves 

143 

Protestants  in  France 

8 

Provisions,  allowance  of 

13 

Public  opinion  destroys  fundamental 

rights,     150 

"           "         diabolical 

152 

"           "         protects  the  slave 

143,  144 

Punishment  of  slaves 

19,20 

Punishments 

62,  103 

Purchasing  a  wife 

179 

Puryer, ''  the  devil" 

47 

Putrid  backs  of  slaves 

54 

Q. 

Quality  of  food 

30 

Quantity  of  food 

13,  29 

R. 

Race  of  slaves  murdered  every  seven  years       39 
Randolph  John  will  of  42,  58 

"  "         description  of  slavedrivcrs     173 

"         "  "  Doe  faces" 

Rations 

Rearing  of  slaves 
Relaxation,  no  time  for 
Religious  persecutions 
Respect  for  woman  lost 
Rest,  liours  of 
Restraints,  legal 
Rotort  of  a  boy 

Rhode  Island,  kidnappers  and  pirates  of 
Rice  plantations 
Richmond  Whig 
Rio  Janeiro  slavery  at 
Riot  at  Natchez 
Riots  in  the  United  States 
Robespierre 
Romans 
Roman  slavery 
Runaways 
Runaway  Slaves — 

Advertisements  for 

Baptist  man  and  woman 

Buried  alive 

Chilton's 

Converted 

"  Dead  or  alive" 

Head  on  a  pole 

Hung 

Hunting  of 

Intelligent  man 

Jim  Dragon 

Luke 

Man  buried 

"     dragged  by  a  horse 

"     maimed 

"     murdered 

"     severe  punishments  of 

"     shot 


114 

33 

182 

lOG 

113 

153 

36 

116 

57 

113 

106 

110 

8 

196 

113 

121 

118-126 


21-133-136 


62-63 
88 
15 
27 
23 
21 
23 
46 

21-97 
22 
47 
14 
15 
85 
85 
76-100 
103 


15,  21,  46,  91  96, 100,  102,  107 

"       "        by  Baptist  preacher  181 

"     taken  from  jail  16 

"     tied  and  driven  92 

''     to  his  wife  23 

"     whipped  to  death  87 

Many,  annually  shot  108 

Stall  ard's  man  89 

White  Peter       ,  91 

Young  wom?Ji  24,  88 


S. 


Sabbath,  a  nominal  holiday, 

106 

Safeguards  of  the  law  taken  from  slaves, 

116 

Sale  of  a  man  by  a  Presbyterian  elder. 

52 

Sale  of  slaves. 

167 

Savannah,  Ga., 

17 

Savannah  slave-hunter, 

21 

Save  us  from  our  friends, 

193 

Scarcity,  times  of 

134 

Scenes  of  horror. 

20 

Search  for  Bibles  and  Hymn  books, 

51 

Secretary  of  the  Navy, 

76,89 

Separation  of  slaves,                              56, 

101,  164 

Shame  unknown  among  naked  slaves, 

101 

Shoes  for  slaves. 

19 

Sick,  treatment  of 

161 

"  Six  pound  paddle," 

71 

"  Slack-jaw," 

97 

Slave-breeders, 

143 

"     breeding. 

182 

Slave-drivers  acknowledge  their  enormities,       114 

"       "         character  of 

109 

Slaveholders — 

Adams, 

69,  159 

Baptist  preachers. 

97,  177 

Barr, 

46 

Baxter,  George  A 

179 

Baxter,  John 

179 

Blocker,  Colonel 

47 

Blount, 

65 

Britt,  Benjamin  W. 

91 

Burbecker, 

88 

Burvant,  Mrs. 

173 

C.  A.,  Rev. 

179 

Casey, 

69 

Chilton,  Joseph 

27 

Clay, 

71 

C,  Mr. 

103 

Cooper,  Charity 

ITS 

Curtis, 

64 

Davis,  Samuel 

90 

Dras,  Henry 

175 

Delaware, 

172 

Female  hypocrite, 

22 

Gautney,  Joseph 

99 

Gayle,  Governor 

172 

Governor  of  North  Carolina, 

24 

Green, 

157 

Hampton,  Wade 

29 

Harney,  William  S. 

89 

Harris,  Benjamin  James 

26 

Hayne,  Governor 

166 

Hedding, 

51 

Henrico  county,  Va., 

36 

Heyward,  Nathaniel 

174 

Hughes,  Philip  0. 

100 

Hutchinson, 

86 

Hypocrite  woman, 

22 

Indecency  of, 

153 

Jones, 

47 

Jones,  Henry 

89 

Lewis,  Benjamin, 

178 

Lewis,  Isham, 

93 

Lewis,  Lilburn, 

93 

Lewis,  Rev.  Mr. 

181 

Long,  Lucy 

173 

Long,  Reuben 

50 

L.,  of  Bath,  Ky., 

90 

Index. 


217 


Maclay,  John  71 

Martin,  Rev.  James  181 

Aiatthews'  Bend,  69 

M'Coy,  99 

M'Cue,  John                                         .  178 

Methodist,  42 

Methodist  Preachers,  180 

M'Meilly,  155 

Moresville,  90 

Morgan,  85 

IMosely,  William  46 

Murderer,  21 

Mushat,  Rev.  John  177 

Nansemond,  Va.,  84 

Natchez  planter,  87 
Nelson,  Alexander                                          51,  179 

Nichols,  of  Connecticut,  27 
North  Carohna,                                             24,  161 

Owens,  Judge,  69 

Painter,  65 

Physician,                   '  55 

Pinckney,  H.  L.  172 

Presbyterian,  97 

Presbyterian  minister,  Huntsville,  47 

"             "          North  Carolina,  96 

"         preacher,  180 

Professing  Christian,  23 

Puryar,  "the  Devil,"  47 

Randolph,  John  42 

Reiks,  Micajah,  152 

Rodney,  87 

Rufi'ner,                                        ■  50 

Snepherd,  S.  C.  29 

Sherrod,  Ben  47 

Slaughter,  65 
Smith,  Judge                                                 45,  176 

Sophistry  of  9 
South  Carolina,                                               23,  25 

Sparks,  Wilham  91 

Stallard,  David  89. 

Starky,  68 

Swan,  John  11 

Teacher  at  Charleston,  54 

Thompson,  47 

Thorpe,  71 

Trabue,  Charles  71 

Tripp,  James  25 

Truly,  James  100 

'Purner,  Fielding  S.  87 

Turner,  uncle  of  46 

Virginian,  44 

Wall,  91 

Watkins,  Billy  47 
Watkins,  Robert  H.                                45,  47,  17G 

Watson,  A.  175 

W.,  Colonel  103 

Webb,  Carroll  105 

Pleasant  187 

West's  uncle,  68 

Widow  and  daughter,  Savannan  river,  98 

Willis,  Robert  180 

Wilson,  WiUiam  178 
Woman,  .  23,  24 
Woman,  professor  of  religion,                 22,  44,  53 

Slaveholders  justify  their  cruellies  by  example,   104 

"             possess  absolute  power,  116 

"             sophistry  of  9 

Slaveholding  amusements,  107,  186 

brutaUty,  149,  153 


"            indecency,  153 

"            murderers,  189,  190 

"            religion,  54 

Slave-mothers,  90 

"     plantations  second  only  to  hell,  114 

Slavery  among  Christians,  45 

Slavery  illustrated — 

Slave-auctions,  167 

"     blocks  with  nails,  104 

"     boys  fight  to  amuse  their  drivers,  107 

"     branding,  21,  77,  108 

"     breeding,  39, 85,  182 

"     burner,  26 

"     burning,  72, 155 

Slave-cabins,                 11, 16,  19,  41,  43,  101,  106 

"       at  night,  19,  22, 25 

Slave-children  nursed,  12 


choking, 
clothing, 
"     collars, 
"     cookery, 
Slave-ditty, 
dogs, 


driver's  death, 

"        licentiousness  of 
driving, 


23 

13,  19,  40,  47,  95,  98,  105,  106 

21,  72,  74,  75 

18 

13 

15,21 

23,94 

70 

85,  92 

21,  72,  74 

18,27,47,95,  101,  105,106 

75 


ietters, 
"     food, 
"     gagging, 

"     gangs,  76 

"     handcuffs,  72 

"     herding,  19,  47 

Slaveholders,  civilization  and  morality  of  188 

"             declarations  of  28 

'♦             habits  of  53 

"             heart  of  145 

"             hospitality  of  125 

"             interest  of  132 

"             sophistry  of  1) 

"             "  treat  their  slaves  well,"  121 

Slaveholding  professor,  50 

"  Slaveholding  religion,"  54 

Slave-hovels,  47,  106 

"     hunting,  21,  97,  108,  155,  160 

"         "         by  Christians,  108 

"         in  Texas,  102 

Slave  imprisoned,  23 

"     in  chains,  13 

"     in  the  stocks,  12 

"     kicking,  97 

"     killed,  and  put  in  the  bill,  172 

"     killing  with  impunity,  21,  46,  47,  50,  54,  91, 

92,  96,  97,  100,  102  108 
"     labor,  18  35, 103,  105 

"     manacles,  21 

"     martyr,  24 

"     meals,  18,  19 

"     mothers,  96 

"     murderers,  tried  and  acquitted,  26 

"     patrol,  14 

"     physicians,  44 
"     punishments  of                                19,  20,  62 

Slave  quarters,  16,  17 

Slavery,  code  of  law  respecting,  143 

among  Christians,  45,  176 

domestic,  J.64 

guilt  of,  ,f]^ 

of  whites,  -■  25 

pubhc  opinion  and  effects  of,  143,  144 


218 


Index. 


Slave 
Slaves 


unmixed  cruelty,  108 

selling,  167 

,  aversion  of  to  their  oppressors,  116 

backs  of ,  putrid  13 

blind,  133 

books  of  searched  for,  51 

branded,  77,  108 

brutality  to,  148 

burial  of,  48 

carded,  46 

cat-hauhng  of,  21,  88 

comfort  of  disregarded,  55,  56 

deaf,  133 

dead  or  aUve,  21,  23 

deformed,  133 

deprived  of  every  safeguard  of  the  law,  116 

described,  110 

diseased,  133 

dread  to  be  sold  for  the  South,  15 

dumb,  133 

dying,  45 
evidence  of  against  white  persons  null,  12,  71 


exchanged. 

168 

reported  from  Virginia, 

192 

fear  their  only  motive. 

108 

feasted  and  flogged, 

87 

hired. 

133 

idiots. 

133 

incorrigible, 

133 

infant. 

133 

in  the  stocks, 

108 

"       U.  S.,  treatment  of. 

9 

lunatics, 

133 

maimed. 

77, 

133 

merchandise. 

110 

multiply, 

139 

murdered  by  cotton.seed, 

29 

"            overwork. 

37 

"            piece-meal. 

34,93 

"             starvation, 

37 

"      every  seven  years, 

39 

"      frequently, 

46,97 

100 

"  "      with  impunity,  21,  46,  47,  50,  54, 

91,92,96,97,  100,  102 

"  naked,  19,  40,  41,  47 

"  not  treated  as  human  beings,  46 

«  old,  133 

"  oudawed,  156 

"  overworked,  35 

"  prayers  of,  17 

"  privations  of,       ■  27 

"  protection  of,  143 

"  sale  of,  167 

"  stock,  110 

"  surgeons  of,  44 

*'  taking  medicine,  14 

"  tantalized,  56 

"  starvation  of,  13,14,28,29,35,105 

"  teeth  of  knocked  out,  13,  20,  22,  83 

"  tied  up  all  night,  20 

«'  toe  cut  off,  101 

"  torments  of,  145 

•'  tiavelling  in  droves,  69,  70.  72 

"  treated  worse  as  they  are  farther  South,  15 

"  treatment  of  by  Christians,  42 

"  under  overseers,  133,  137 

"  wuiching  of,  57 

"  without  redress,  95 

"           "       shelter,  43 


"      working  animals,  110 

"      worn  out,  133 

"      worse  treated  than  brutes,  111,112 

"      wounded  by  gun-shot,  77 

Slave  testimony  excluded,  149 

"     torturing  hypocrite,  22 

"     trade  with  Africa,  8 

"     trading,  49,  97 

"         "        honorable,  174 

"     traffic,  97,  167 

Slave  Murderers,  21,  26,  29,  46.  50,  54,  91,  92, 

93,  96,  97,  100,  101, 108,  157,  158,  159,  IGl,  173, 

177,  179,  181. 

Slave  plantation,  11,    24.  25,  29,  38,41,  42,   44, 
45,  46,  53,  68,  70,  7],  72,  75,  76,  84,  85,  80,  92, 
98,  99,  102,  105,  lOG,  207,  114, 174. 
Slave  usnge  contrasted  with  that  of  animals,       119 
Slave  whipping,       20,  25, 26,  27,  51,  59,  98,  106 


Slave  yokes. 

Whipped 

Whipped  and  burnt 

Whipped  to  death 

Slaves,  treatment  of 

Slave  trade. 

Sleeping  in  clothes. 

Slitting  of  ears. 

Smoothing  iron  on  girl's  backs. 

Sophistry  of  slaveholders. 


74 

26,  47,  50,  70,  85,  98,  100 

26,  86,  92 

26,  50,  G4,  67,  70,  72,  87,  90 

9 

139,  140, 182,  184 

19 

23 

68 

9 

South  Carolina,  laws  of  40,  116 

"  "  medical  college,  169 

Southern  dogs  and  horses,  19 

Spartan  slavery,  8 

Speece,  Rev.  Conrad,  opposed  to  emancipation,  52 
Spirit  of  laws,  151 

Springfield,  S.  C.  25 

Starvation  of  a  female  slave,  23 

"         "    slaves,  10c 

Statement  of  a  physician,  104 

State,  abuse  of  power  in  115 

Stealing  of  freemen,  162 

Stevenson,  Andrew,  letter  by  182 

St.  Helena,  S.  C.  25 

Stillman's,  Dr.  medical  infirmary  at  Charleston,  171 
Stocks  for  slaves,  11,  108,  175 

"  Stock  without  shelter,"  71 

"  Subject  of  prayer,"  54 

Suffering  of  slaves,  57,  102.  105 

"       "     by  hunger,  28,  105 

"       "       "     drives  to  despair  and  suicide,  102 
Sugar-planters,  38 

Suicide  of  slaves,  102 

Suit  for  a  dead  slave,  178 

"     "  "  murdered  slave,  71, 102 

Sunday  morning  in  Kentucky,  168 

Surgeon  of  slaves,  44 

Surgery  at  Charleston,  170 

"  Susceptibility  of  pain,"  109 


Tanner's  oil  poured  on  a  slave  2? 

Tantalising  of  slaves  56 

Tappan  Arthur  47 

Tarring  of  slaves  27 

Taskwork  of  slaves  12 

Teeth  knocked  out  13,  20,  83 

Tundcr  regard  of  slaveholders  for  slave  7,  8 

Tennessee  200 


Index. 


219 


Tkstimont. — 

Allen,  Rev.  William  T. 

Avery,  George  A. 

Caulkins,   Nehemiah 

Ciianninjr,  Dr. 

Chapin  Rev.  William  A. 

Chapman,  Gordon 

Cler  ryman, 

Cruelty  to  slaves 

Dickey,  Rev.  William 

Draylon,  Colonel 

Gilderslecvc,  William  C. 

Graham,  Rev.  John 

Grimkc,  Sarah  M. 
llawlcy.  Rev.  Francis 

Ide,  Joseph  lOl 

Jeffjrson,  Thomas 
Macy,  F.  C 
"     Reuben  G. 
'•     Richard 
"    T.  D.  M. 
Moulton,  Rev.  Horace 
Nelson,  John  M. 
New  Orleans 
Of  slaves  excluded 
Paulding,  James  K. 
Poc,    William 
Powe',    Eleazar 
Sapington,  Lemuel 
Scales,  Rev.   William 
Secretary  of  the  Navy 
.Smith,  Rev.   Phineas 
Summers,  Mr. 
Virginian 

Westgate,  George  W. 
Weld,  AngeUna  Grimk€ 
W^hitc,  Hiram 
Wist,  Willam  '' 


45 

44 

10 

38,44 

105 

84 

107 

57 

93 

llO 

50 

25 

22,  44 

94 

101 

110 

106 

98 

98 

105 

17,  109 

51 

35,91 

149 

76,89 

26 

99 

49 

100 

76,89 

109 

110 

76 

30 

52 

51 

109 

102 

120 

120 

51 

121 

106 

134 

119 


Texas 

I'heodosius  the  Great 

Thessalonica,  massacre  at 

Thumb-screws 

Tiberius 

Time  for  relaxation,  not  allowed 

Times  of  scarcity 

Titus 

Tobacco  worms  eaten 

Toes  cut  off 

Tooth  knocked  out 

Tortures 

"      eulogized  by  a  professor  of  religion 
Trading  with  negroes 
Traffic  in  slaves 
Trajan 

Treatment  of  sick  slaves 
Treatment  of  slaves  in  the  United  States 

by  professing  Christians  42,  97,  180 

"  httle  better  than  that  of  brutes     106 

Trial  of  women,  "  white  and  black,"  25 

Trials  for  murdering  slaves     46,  91,  94, 108,  173 
Turkish  slavery 
Turner,  Nat 

Twelve  slaves  killed  by  overwork 
Twenty-seven  hundred  thousands  of  free-bom 

citizens  in  the  United  States 
Tying  up  of  slaves  at  night 

''  Tyrant" 
"  Uncle  Jack,"  Baptist  preacher 
Under  garments  not  allowed  to  slaves 
United  States,  Laws  of 


77 
13,  20,  22 

72 
104 
209 

97 
118 

44 
9,48 


96 
97 

7 

20 

115 

179 

13 

32 


University  of  Virginia  114 

Untimely  seasons  134 

Usage  of  slaves  and  brutes  contrasted       111,  112 

Vapid  babblings  of  slaveholders  9 

Vice,  hypocrisy  of  8 

Vicksburg,  massacre  of  146 

Virginia,  a  slave  menagerie  182 

"        exportation  of  slaves  from  182 

"        University  of  114 

Visitors  to  slave  states  128 

Vitellius  120 

Washing  for  slaves  95 

Washington  slavery  67 

"            the  national  slave  market  76 

West  Indian  slaves  142 

Whip,  cracking  of  heard  at  a  distance  107 

"  Whipped  to  death"                      72,  96,  102, 108 

Whipping — 

Children  20 

Every  day  106 

Females  13,  14,  48,  53,  103,  107 

On  three  plantations  heard  at  one  time     108 
Pregnant  women  20,  90,  1 79 

Slaves  13,  20,  22,  25,  26, 50,  51, 88,  98,  102, 

[107 

Slaves  after  a  feast  87 

"      for  praying  88 

With  paddle  20,  46 

Women  with  pra)'er  54 

Whipping-posts  18,  20,  46 

Whips  equally  common  on  plantations  as 

ploughs  104 

"  White  or  black,"  trial  of  25 

Whites  in  slavery  25 

White  slave  48 

Wholesale  murders  200 


Wife,  purchase  of  a 
Will  of  John  Randolph 
Wilmington,  N.  C. 
Witches  of  New-England 

WITNESSES. 

Aobot,  Jordan 
Abdic,  P. 
Adams,  Mr. 
African  Observer 
Alexandria  Gazette 
Allan,  James  M., 
Allan,  Rev.  William  T. 
Alston,  J.  A.,  Heirs  of, 
Alton  Telegraph 
Alvis,  J. 

Anderson,  Benjamin 
Andrews,  Professor 
Anthony,  Julius  C. 
Antram,  Joshua 
Appleton,  John  James 
Arkansas  Advocate 
Armstrong,  William 
Artop,  James 
Ashford,  J.  P. 
Augusta  Chronicle 
Avery,  George  A. 
Aylethorpe,  Thomas 
Bahi,  P. 

Ba'tcr,   William 
Baldwin,  J.  G. 
Bah!  win,  Jonathan  F. 
Ballinger,  A.  S. 


42. 


179 
42 
II 

113 

73 

153 

159 

155 

150 

45 

45,61,180 

85 

157 

164 

42 

1G7 

68 

80 

90 

162 

64,  157 

78 

78,  153 

165 

43,  127,  172 

83 

154,  167 

81 

64 

75 

81 


220 


Index. 


Baltimore  Sun 

163 

Baptist  Deacon 

3y 

Bard  well,  Rev.  William 

180 

Barker,  Jacob 

141 

Barnard,  Alonzo 

65 

Barnes,  George  W, 

84 

Barr,  James 

81 

"     Mrs. 

46 

"     Rev.  Hugh 

46 

Barrer,  B.  G. 

79 

Barton,  David  W. 

137 

"       Richard  W. 

137 

Bateman,  William 

78 

Baton  Rouge,  Agricultural  Society  of               38 

Bayhi,  P. 

74,81 

Beall,  Samuel 

168 

Beasley,  A.  G.  A. 

84 

JohnC. 

154 

"        Robert 

63,79 

Beene,  Jesse 

63 

Bell,  Abraham 

65 

"     Samuel 

169 

Bennett,  D.  B. 

63 

Bcsson,  Jacob 

lol 

Bezon,  Mr. 

79 

Bingham,  Joel  S. 

81 

Birdseye,  Ezekiel 

90,  157,  179 

Birney,  James  G. 

37,47 

Bishop,  J. 

78 

Blackwell,  Samuel 

39 

Bland,  R.  J. 

63 

Bliss  Mayhew  and  Co 

168 

"     Philemon,    31,  35,  36, 

37,41,43,  102,  138 

Bolton,  J.  L.  and  W.  H. 

73 

Boudinot,  Tobias 

28,92 

Bouldin,  T.  T. 

40 

Bourgoing,  J.  F. 

125 

Bourne,  George 

28,52,178 

Bradley,  Henry 

157 

Bragg,  Thomas 

166 

Brasseale,  W.  H. 

63 

Brewster,  Jarvis 

30 

Brothers,  Menard 

73 

Brove,  A. 

81 

Brown,  J,  A. 

77,82 

"      John 

47 

"       Rev.  Abel 

88 

"       Thomas 

80 

"       William 

80 

Bruce  Mr. 

182 

Buchanan,  Dr. 

40,58,112,118 

Biickels,  William  D. 

80 

Burvant,  Madame 

77 

Burwell 

137 

Bush,  Moses  E. 

81 

Buster,  Mr. 

70 

Butt,  Moses 

168 

Byrn,  Samuel  H. 

162 

Calvert,  Robert 

84 

Carney,  R.  P. 

77 

Carolina,  History  of 

35 

Carter,  Mrs.  Itlizabeth  L. 

79,  172 

Caulkins,  Nehemiah 

11,  30,  31,  36 

Channing,  Dr. 

38,  44,  127 

Chapin,  Rev.  William  A. 

105 

Chapman,  B.  F. 

168 

''         Gurdon 

84 

Charleston  Courier 

153. 156, 105, 166 

"           Mercury 

84,165,171,  175 

"         Patriot 

169 

herry,  John  W. 

80 

Child,  David  L. 

90 

"     Mrs. 

90, 124,  140 

Choules,  Rev.  John  0. 

39 

Citizens  of  Onslow 

156 

Clark,  W.  G. 

166 

Clarke,  John 

87 

Clay,  Henry 

37,  183 

"     Thomas 

28,  29,  30 

Clenderson,  Benjamin 

172 

Clergyman 

107 

Coates  Lindley 

170 

Cobb,  W.  D. 

156 

Colborn,  J.  L. 

84 

Cole,  Nathan 

61,89 

Coleman,  H. 

156 

Colonization  Society 

60 

Columbian  Inquirer 

168 

Comegys,  Governor 

163 

Congress,  Member  of 

67 

Connecticut,  Medical  Society  of 

135 

Constant,  Dr. 

67 

Cooke,  Owen 

73 

Cook,  Giles 

137 

"     H.L. 

165 

Cooper,  Thomas 

117 

Cornelius,  Rev.  Elias 

161 

Corner,  Charles 

73 

"      L.  E. 

63 

Cotton  planters 

38 

Cowles,  Mrs.  Mary 

85 

"       Rev.  Sylvester 

177 

Craige,  Charles 

154 

Crane,  William 

63 

Crutchficld,  Thomas 

81 

Cuggy,  T. 

73.  154 

Curtis,  Mr. 

75 

"       Rev.  John  H. 

64 

Cuyler,  J. 

168 

Daniel  and  Goodman 

82 

Darien  Telegraph 

207 

Davidson,  Rev.  Patrick 

179 

Davis,  John 

35,  36 

Davis,  Benjamin 

167 

"      T. 

166 

"      Thomas 

172 

Dean,  Jethro 

68 

Debruhl,  Jesse 

83,84 

Demming,  Dr. 

39 

Densler,  T.  S. 

155 

Derbigny,  Judge 

163 

Dew,  Philip  A. 

84 

"     President 

182 

Dickey,  Rev.  James  H. 

'  128 

"       William 

93 

Dickinson,  Mr. 

39 

Dillahunty,  John  H. 

80 

Doddridge,  Philip 

183 

Dorrah,  James 

62 

Downman,  Mrs.  Lucy  M. 

IM 

Douglas,  Rev.  J.  W 

184 

Drake  and  Thomson 

164 

Drayton,  Colonel 

110 

Drown,  William 

75 

Dudley,  Rev.  John 

74 

Dnggan, John 

154 

Dunn,  John  L- 

165 

Dunham,  Jacob 

177 

Durcll,  Judge 

131 

Index. 


221 


Durett,  Francis 
Dustin,  W 
Dyer,  William 

Eastman,  Rev.  D.  B. 
Katon,  General  William 
Edmunds,  Nicholas 
Edwards,  F.  L.  C 

"         President 

"  Junior  " 
Ellison.  Samuel 
Ellis,  Orren 
Ellsworth,  Elijah 
Emancipation  Society  of  N.  C. 
English,  Walter  R. 
Evans,  R.  A. 
Everett,  William 

Faulkner,  Mr. 
Fayetteville  Observer 
Fernandez  and  Whiting 
Finley,  James  C 

"    "R.  S. 
Fishers,  E.  H.  and  I. 
Fitzhugh,  William  H 
Ford,  John 
Foster,  Francis 
Fox, John  B. 
Foy.  Enoch 
Francisvil'.c  Chronicle 
Franklin  Republican 
Frederick,  John 
Friend.s  Yearly  Meeting  of 
Fuller,  Isaac  C. 
Fullerton,  G.  S. 
Furman,  B.  , 

Gadsden,  Thomas  N. 
Gaines,  Rev.  Ludwell,  G. 
Gales,  Joseph 
Garcia,  Henrico  Y. 
Garland,  Maurice  H. 
Gates,  Seth  M. 
Gayle,  John 
Georgetown  Union 
Georgia  Constitutionalist 

"       Journal 
Georgian 
Gholson,  Mr. 
Giddings,  Mr. 
Gilbert,  E.  W. 
Gildersterre,  William  C.      30, 

Glidden,  Mr. 
Goodo,  Mr. 
Gourden  and  Co. 
Grace,  Byrd  M. 
Graham,  Rev.  John 

Rev.  Dr. 
Grand  Gulf  Advertiser 
Graham,  Jehab 
Gray,  Abraham 
Greene,  R.  A. 
Green,  James  R. 
Gregory,  Ossian 
Gridley,  H. 
Grimke,  Sarah  M. 
Grosvenor.  Rev.  Cynw  P 
Guex,  D.  F. 
Gunnell,  John  J.  H. 
Guthrie.  A.  A. 
Guyler,  J. 


73,74 

73 

29,  62 

127 

77 

79 

28,118 

11,  31,  58 

42,  64 

80 

65 

28,  60 

80 

63 

162 

182 

169 

82 

60 

183 

137 

117 

82 

154 

82 

156 

160 

159 

83,84 

164 

99 

69 

79 


165 

92 

153 

67 

139 

129 

172 

178 

160 

167 

166 

182 

76 

84 

35,  36,  37,  41,  44 

50,  124 

69 

183 

80 

84 

25 

183 

78,136 

179 

80 

79 

73 

137 

22,  44,  62 

178 
74 

137 
45 
77 


Halley,  Preston 
Hall,  "Samuel 
Han,  E 

Hand,  John  H. 
Hansborough,  William 
Hanson,  Peter 
Harding,  N.  H. 
Harman,  Samuel 
Harrison,  General  W.  H. 
Hart,  F.  A. 

"     Rev.  Mr. 
Harvey,  J. 
Hawley,  David 

"    "    Rev.  Francis 
Hayne,  General  R.  Y. 
Henderson,  John 
"  Judge 

Hendren,  H. 

Herring,  D. 
"    ^  Dr. 

Hitchcock,  Judge 

Hite,  S.  N. 

Hodges,  B.  W. 

"       Rev.  Coleman  S. 

Holcombc,  John  P. 

Holmes,  George, 

Home,  Frederick 

Honerton,  Pliilip 

Hopkins,  Rev.  Henry  T. 

Horsey,  Outerbridge 

Hough,  Rev.  Joseph 

Houstoun,  Edward 

Hudnall,  Thomas 

Hughes,  Benjamin 

Hunt,  John 

"      Rev.  Thomas  P. 

Hussey,  George  P.  C. 

Huston,  Felix 

Hutchings,  A.  J. 

Idc,  Joseph 

Indiana,  Legislature  of 

Jackson,  Stephen  M. 

"       Telegraph 
James,  Joseph 
Jarnett,  James  T.  De 
Jarvett,  James  T. 
Jefferson,  Thomas 
Jenkins,  John 
Jett,  Marshall 
Johnson,  Bryant 
'•       Cornelius 
"       Isaac 
''       Josiah  S. 
JoUey,  J.  L. 
Jones,  Alexander 

"      Anson 

"      Hill 

''      James 

"     R.  H. 

"  W.  Jefferson 
Jourdan,  Green  B. 
Judd,  D 

"      Mrs.  Nancy 

Keeton,  G.  W. 
Kennedy,  John 
Kentucky,  Synod  of 
Kephart.  George 
Kcrnin,  Charles 
Kevcs,  Willard 


80 
69,  75,  7G,  92,  181 
81 
63,73 
92, 178 
80 
61 
84 
117 
92 
86 
164 
G4,91 
94 
166 
73,  153 
128 
137 
81 
84 
79 
81 
74 
87 
82 
159 
169 
79 
88 
37 
181 
165 
78 
162 
83,  164 

k; 

76 

162 

83 

101 
59 

79 

166 

78 

154 

62 

110,  117 

80 

82 

62,  79 

36,  37,  43,  65 

78 

38 

78 

39 

102 

165 

156 

inr 

135 

82 
62 

88 

162 

82 

61,  167 

169 

74 
70 


222 


Index, 


Kimball  and  Thome 

129 

"         George 

171 

Kimborough,  James 

79 

King,  Charles 

169 

"     John  H. 

82 

"     Nehemiah 

165 

Knapp,  Henry  E. 

36 

"        Isaac 

70 

Kyle,  Frederick 

178 

"     James 

178 

Lacv,   1  heodore  A. 

16(i 

La dd,  William                   29,  30 

40,  43,  86,  1.38 

Lains,  O.  W. 

77 

Lambelh, William  L. 

73 

Lainbre,  Mr. 

73 

Laneette,  R. 

81 

Langhoriic,  Scruggs  and  Cook 

137 

Larrimer,  Thomas 

69 

Lalimcr,  W.  K. 

136 

fjawless,  Judge 

157 

Lawyer,  Zadok 

80 

Leduilh,  Thomas 

78 

Lefiwich,  William 

28,  36,  41,  43,  48 

Lcmes,  Ferdinand 

73 

Leverich  and  Co. 

154 

Lewis,  Kirkinan 

164 

Lccington  Intelligencer 

164 

"          Observer 

166 

Little,  Mrs.  Sophia 

75 

Loflano,  Hazlet 

73 

Long,  Joseph 

137 

Loom  is,  Henry  H. 

86 

Loring,  R. 

136 

"      Thomas 

152 

Louisville  Reporter 

67 

Lowry,  Mrs.  Nancy 

50 

Luminals,  A. 

78 

,*^yman.  Judge 

75 

"      Rev.  H. 

42,  65,  127,  177 

Maeoin,  J.  73 

jVlacon  Messenger  165 

"       Telegrap  159 

Masy,  F.  C.  30,  105 
"     Reuben  G                                 28,  41,  43,  98 

"     Richard  30,41,98 

"     T.  D  M.  105 
Magee,  William                                    82,  162,  167 

Males,  Henry  71 

Maltby,  Stephen  E.  41,  43,  64 

Manning,  P.  T.  73 

Marietta  College,  student  of  69 

Marks,  James  81 

Marriott,  Charles  98 

Marshall,  John  T.  166 

Martineau,  Harriet  149 

Maryland  Journal  29,  58 

Maryville  Intelligencer  61,  114 

Mason,  Samuel  78 

Mathieson,  Rev.  James  39 

May,  Rev.  Samuel  J.  160 

Mc  Cue,  Moses                     ,  165 

McDonnell,  James  8U 

McCiehec,  Edward  J.  156 

McGregor,  Henry  M-  ^2 

Mc.VIunain,  John  78,  83 

Mead  Whitman  59 

Medical  College  of  South  Carolina  169 

Memphis  Gazette  168 

"         Inquirer  a63 


Menefee,  R.  H. 

J  68 

Menzies,  Judge 

88 

Mercer,  Mr. 

139, 183 

Metcalf,  Asa  B. 

77,  153 

Middleton,  Mr. 

139 

Miles,  Lemuel 

79 

Milledgcville  Journal 

155 

"             Recorder 

168 

Miller,  C. 

165 

Minister  from  Texas,  A.  Jones 

102 

Minor,  W.  I. 

168 

Missouri  Republican 

158 

Mitchell,  Dr.  Robert 

86,89 

Mitchell,  Isaac 

81 

IM'Neilly 

155 

Mobile  Advertiser 

167, 172 

"       Examiner 

67 

"       Register 

162 

Mongin,  R.  P.  T. 

166 

Montesquieu 

118 

Montgomery,  W.  H. 

168 

Moore,  Mr.  Va. 

60 

Moorhcad,  John  H. 

66 

Morris,  E.  W. 

82,  16 

Moulton,  Rev.  Horace  28,  30,  3 

,  45    88,  109 

112,  136,139 

Moyne  Dr.  F.  Julius  Le 

88 

Muggridge  Matthew 

165 

Muir  J.  G. 

154 

Murat  A. 

73 

Murphy  S.  B. 

63,78 

Napier  T.  and  L. 

168 

Natchez  Courier 

162,  1G8 

Daily  Free  Trade 

169 

National  Intelligencer 

154,  172 

Nelson  Dr.  David 

86,  127 

"     John  M. 

51,  74,  124 

Ncsbitt  Wilson 

137 

Newbern  Sentinel 

166 

"         Spectator 

156,  162 

New  Hampshire,  legislature  of 

135 

Newman  Mrs.  B. 

172 

New  Orleans  Argus 

164 

Bee  36,  79,  84,  91,  150, 

154,  162,  167 

"         Bulletin 

154,  166 

"         Courier 

91,  139,  183 

"         Kidnapping  at 

141 

"        Mercantile  Advertiser 

91 

"         Post 

157 

New  York  American 

169 

Sun 

9] 

Neyle  S. 

78,83 

Nicholas  Judge 

117 

Nicoll  Robert 

62,  153 

Niles  Hezekiah 

60,  183 

Noe  James 

63 

Norfolk  Beacon 

139,  165, 166 

"       Herald 

160 

N.  C.  Literary  and  Commercial  Standard      152 

"      Journal  20S> 

Nourse  Rev.  James  179 

Nye  Horace  64,  66,  74,  157 


O' Byrne 

O'Coimell  Daniel 
Oliver  Colonel 
O'Neill  Peter 
Onslow,  Citizens  of 
Orme  Moses 
O'Rorke  John 


166 
182 
169 
165 
156 
78 
165 


Index. 


223 


Ovvrstrect  Richard 

79 

"         William 

77 

Owen  Captain  N.  F. 

123 

"       John  W 

137 

Owens  J.  G. 

165 

Parrish  John 

30,  40,  155 

Parrott  Dr. 

102 

Patterson  Willie 

81,82 

Paulding  James  K. 

76,  89 

Peacock  Jesse 

1G9 

Perry  Thomas  C. 

180 

Petersburg  Constellation 

16.=) 

Philanthropist 

66 

Pickard  J.  S. 

168 

Pinckney  H.  L. 

166, 172 

Pinkney'William 

58 

Planter's  Intelli<Tcnccr 

162 

Planters  of  South  Carolina 

39 

Poe  William 

26, 181 

Porter  Mr. 

66 

Portsmouth  Times    • 

165 

Powell  Eleazar 

28,  31,  36,  99 

Presbyterian  elder, 

90,  169 

President  of  the  United  States 

139 

Piingle  Thomas 

123 

Pritehard  Wilham  H. 

160 

Probate  sale 

38 

Purdon  James 

81 

Ragland  Samuel 

81 

Raleigh  Register 

165 

Ralston  Samuel 

163 

Randall  J.  B. 

80,  168 

Randolph  John 

58 

Randolph  Thomas  Mann 

182 

Rankin  Rev.  John                  28, 

40,  43,  60,  67,  92 

Rascoj  William  D. 

160 

Rawlins  Samuel 

82 

Raworth  Egbert  A. 

83 

Redden  J.  V. 

137 

Red  River  Whig 

165 

Reed,  Rev.  Andrew 

39 

"     William  H. 

75 

Reese  Enoch 

164 

Reins  Richard 

135 

Reeves  W.  P. 

73 

Renshaw  Rev.  C.  S.  30,  31,  41 

61,  88,  166,  168, 

180 

Rhodes  Durant  H, 

156 

Rice  H.  W. 

73 

"     Rev.  David 

58,112 

Richardson  G.  C. 

81 

Richards  James  K. 

137 

"         Moses  R. 

137 

"         Stephen  IVI. 

81 

Richmond  Compiler 

165 

"           Inquirer 

166 

Whig 

165,  166, 182 

Ricks,  Micajah 

77 

Riley,  W. 

78 

Ripley,  George  B. 

84 

Roach,  Philip 

137 

Robbins,  Welcome  H. 

80 

Robarts,  William 

164 

Roberts,  J.  H. 

63 

Robin,  C.  C. 

39,  59,  118 

Robinson,  N.  M.  C. 

81 

Robinson,  WilKam 

154 

Roebuck,  George 

68 

Rogers,  N.  P. 

131,  171 

•Sogers,  Thomas 

71 

Ross,  Abner  153 

Rowland  John  A.  63 

Ruffin,  Judge  60 

Russcl,  Benjamin  79,  83 

Russel.  W.  160 

Rymcs,  Littlejohn  81 
Sadd,  Rev.  Joseph  M.                  43,  62,  64,  130 

Salvo,  Conrad  80 

Sapington,  Lemuel  41,  43,  49 

Saunders,  James  80 

Savage,  Rev.  Thomas  76,  87 

Savannah  Georgian  156 

''          Republican  165 

Savory,  AVilliam  30,  40,  6a 

Scales,  Rev.  Wdliam  C8,  100,  105 

Schmidt,  Louis  80 

Scott,  Rev.  Orange  181 

Scott,  William  93 

Scrivener,  J.  77 

Seabrook,  Whitmarsh  B.  I75 

Secretary  of  the  navy  76,  89 

Selfcr  81 

Senator  of  the  United  States  7g 

Sevier  Ambrose  H.  71; 

Sewall  Stephen  85,  IH 

Shafter  M.  M.  91 

Sheith  M  J.  81 

Shield  and  Walker  I37 

Shields  Polly  C.  166 

Shropshire  David  166 

Simmons  B.  C.  7^ 

Simpson  John  iGo 

Sizcr  R.  W.  77 

Skinner,  W.  I55,  164 

Slaveholders  35 

Smith,  Bishop  of  Kentucky  204,  206 

"       Gcrrit                       '  C7, 86,  161 

"       Professor  31 
"      Rev.  Phineas  31, 40,  45,  62, 101, 109, 112, 

138 

Smyth  Alexander  28,  35,  135 


Snow  Henry  H. 
Snowden  J. 

"       Rev.  Samuel 
South  Carolina,  legislature  of 

"  Medical  College  of 

"  Slaveholder  of 

Southern  Argus 
Southern  Christian  Herald 
Southerner 

Southmayd,  Rev.  Daniel  S. 
Spillman,  Mr. 
Stansell,  William 
Staughton,  Rev.  Dr. 
Staunton  Spectator 
Steams  and  Co. 
Stevenson,  Andrew 
Stewart,  Samuel 
Stillmam,  Dr. 
Stith,  W.  and  A. 
Stone,  Asa  A. 

"      Silas 

"     Wilham  L. 
Strickland,  William 
Stroud,  George  M. 
Stuart,  Charles 
Summers,  Mr. 
Swain,  B. 

Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Greorgia 
Tart,  John 
Tate,  Calvin  II. 


70 
168 
141 

35 
169 
117 
162 
178 
161 
176 

89 

79 
178 
165 

79 
182 

63 

171 

137 

28,  35,  36,  62 

167 

155 


140 

123 

110,  117 

60 

117 

79 

88 


224 


Index.  ■ 


Taylor,  James  H. 
'•       John 

''       Lawton,  and  Co. 
Texan  minister,  Auson  Jones, 
Tiiateher,  Colonel 
Thome  and  Kimball, 
Tliorne,  James  A 
Tliompr.pn,  Henry  P. 
Thomson,  Mr. 

''         Sandibrd 
Todd,  R.  S. 
Toler,  William 
Tolin,  Cornelius  D. 
Townscnd,   Ely 

"  Samuel 

Tucker.  Judge 
Turnbull,  Robert 
Turner,  John 

"       John  D. 

"      L. 
Turton.S.  B. 
Tuscaloosa  Flag  of  the  Union 

(Jpsher,  Judge 
Ustick,  William  A. 

Vance,  John 

Van  Buren,  Martin 

Varillat,  H. 

Vicksburg  Register 

Virginia  Minister 

Virginian 

Walker,  John 

Walton,  George 
John  W. 

Walsh,  Sarah 

Washington  Globe 

Waugh,  Dr.  Jeremiah  S. 

Weld,  Angelina  Grimk6 

Wells,  Thomas  J. 

West,  Eli 

Western  Luminary 

"         Medical  Journal 
"  "     Reformer 

"         Review 

Westgate,  George  W.  30, 

Whitbread,  Samuel 


81 

138 

80 

102 

171 

129 

61,  158 

87 

163 

166 

137 

73 

63 

78 

84 

117,  123 

28,  3C,  44 

63 

79 

46 

82 

163 

183 
69 

65 

139 

63 

161,  162 

179 

76 

63 

167 

79 

78,  172 

167 

177 

52 

166 

68 

76 

60 

31,  40,43 

35,  134 

36,  37,  42,  43,  72 

118 


I  Whitefield,  George 
I  "  Ncedham 

Whitehead,  C.  C. 
W.  W. 

White,  Hiram 

V/ightrnan,  Rev.  William  M. 
Wilberforce,  W. 
Wilkins,  C.  W. 
Wilkinson,  Alfred 
Williams,  George  W. 
Willis,  Robert 
Willis,  William 
Wilmington  Advertiser 
Wilson,  Rev'.  Joseph  G. 
Winchester  Virginian 
Wirt,  William 
Wisner,  F. 
Witherspoon,  Dr. 
Woodward,  Jeremiah 
Woolman,  John 
Wotton,  John 
Wright,  Mr. 
Yampert,  T.  J.  De 
Yearly  meeting  of  Friends 
Woman  dying 

"       flogged  because  her  child  died 

"       maniac 

"       no  respect  for 
Women  at  childbirth 

"         "  the  same  labor  with  men 

"        ''  work 

"       miscarry  under  the  whip 

"       not  breeding 

"       pregnant  whipped 

' '       severe  w  hippers  of  slaves 

''       slaves 
Work-house  at  Charleston 
Working  hours 

"         of  slaves 
Worn-out  slaves 
"  Worse  and  worse" 
Worship  of  God  prohibited 
Wounds  by  gunshot 
Wright  Isaac 

Yokes  for  slaves 


J,  57,  112 
8A 
ill 

m 

51 
'175 

lis 

81 

6G,  75 

137 


180 
91 

156 
90 

168 

109 
83 
29 
82 
5b 
63 

1?9 
73 

164 

44 

16 

97,  106 

153 

12 

13 

18 

20,  90 

l.'i 

20,  90,  106 

55,59 

12 

23,  171 

13,  85,  103,  105,  108 

12,  85,  95 

12,  133 

120 

51 

77 

163 

74 


SffSk 


